Abstract
The perception of warmth and cold was measured on six labial and lingual loci plus the fingertip. The results indicate that (1) the responsiveness to warming varies substantially across oral sites; (2) compared to warming, the responsiveness to cooling is more homogeneous across oral locations and somewhat stronger relative to the fingertip; (3) the psychophysical function for warmth on the vermilion lip and the labial mucosa has two limbs that may represent the contributions of two sensory systems to perceptions of warmth; and (4) the psychophysical functions on labial skin tend to be accelerated for warmth and decelerated (compressed) for cold. The differences in responsiveness within and between thermal modalities are considered in terms of probable differences in both neural innervation and the physical properties of the skin. It is hypothesized that the oral contribution to thermoregulation, although arguably minor, may be greater for cold than for warmth.
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