Mapping Sensory Spots for Moderate Temperatures on the Back of Hand.

Fan Yang,Jingjing Xu,Shengyong Xu,Danhong Han,Guixu Chen,Sikai Zhou

doi:10.3390/s17122802

Abstract

Thermosensation with thermoreceptors plays an important role in maintaining body temperature at an optimal state and avoiding potential damage caused by harmful hot or cold environmental temperatures. In this work, the locations of sensory spots for sensing moderate temperatures of 40–50 °C on the back of the hands of young Chinese people were mapped in a blind-test manner with a thermal probe of 1.0 mm spatial resolution. The number of sensory spots increased along with the testing temperature; however, the surface density of sensory spots was remarkably lower than those reported previously. The locations of the spots were irregularly distributed and subject-dependent. Even for the same subject, the number and location of sensory spots were unbalanced and asymmetric between the left and right hands. The results may offer valuable information for designing artificial electronic skin and wearable devices, as well as for clinical applications.

Highlights

Electronic skin (e-skin) integrated with a variety of sensors has been developed for wearable devices [1] and health monitoring [2,3]
It has generally been accepted that the transient receptor potential (TRP) channels, which exist in membranes of cells, nerve endings or intracellular organelles, serve as thermoreceptors in thermosensation [9]
TRPV1, TRPV2, TRPV3, and TRPV4 are recognized as the main TRPs for warm sensation [10,11], and TRPM8 and TRPAl are known to take charge of cold sensation [10,12]

Summary

Introduction

Electronic skin (e-skin) integrated with a variety of sensors has been developed for wearable devices [1] and health monitoring [2,3] Among these electronic components in e-skin, temperature sensors are an important element, since temperature is a critical parameter of living organisms. Warm and cold receptors in humans, which are sensitive to hot and cold stimulus, respectively, can discriminate temperatures ranging from −10.0 ◦ C to 60.0 ◦ C [4]. TRPM8 and TRPA1 are cold activated channels corresponding to the moderately cool temperatures of 23.0–28.0 ◦ C [24] and harmful cold temperatures below 17.0 ◦ C [25], respectively.

Objectives

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion