A device to measure cutaneous temperature sensitivity in humans and subhuman species.

A device is described to maintain restricted areas of skin at any temperature between 5 and 45 degrees C. Changes in temperature of controlled intensity up to 10 degrees C at rates from 0.03 degrees C to 2 degrees C/s can be delivered in either the warm or cool directions. The stimulator, which is in contact with the skin, is sufficiently simple so that a number of them can be constructed, each with a different contact area up to 18.2 cm2. The current control apparatus that operates a Peltier device in the stimulator is a feedback control system that maintains a precisely controlled temperature at the stimulator-skin interface. Safety features make it suitable and safe for use in human psychophysical studies and subhuman behavioral measurements of temperature sensitivity. Electrostatic shielding makes it compatible with the electronic instruments used in electrophysiological studies of the temperature sense.