Investigation on the possible role of a work factor in thermoregulatory behavior of man.

During experiments on thermoregulatory behavior, subjects rested or exercised completely immersed in a water bath of constant temperature. They could adjust the temperature on their backs by means of a water-perfused pillow. The difference T diff between the freely selected temperature on their backs and the water temperature was taken as output of the system of thermoregulatory behavior. Tdiff depends on deep-body and mean skin temperature but not on a non-thermal work factor. In the equation Tdiff=ao + a1Tes + a2Ts, the ratio a1/a2 is approximately 3. This is much smaller than the same ratio for the correlation between sweat rate and deep-body and mean skin temperature which is of the order of 10.