Comparative cold responses of men and women to external and internal cold stimuli

Experiments were conducted comparing the relative contribution of internal and external cold stimuli in the initiation of horripilation (cutis anserina or "goose flesh") in men and women. Five men and five women were compared. Subjects wore a water perfused vest which covered the entire thorax and allowed torso skin temperature to be maintained at either 34 degrees C, 30 degrees C, 26 degrees C, or 22 degrees C in four separate experiments. After stabilization, the subject's legs were immersed in water maintained at 16 degrees C for 20 min. After removing their legs from the water, subjects then pedalled a stationary bicycle ergometer at minimum resistance to facilitate the return of cooled venous blood to the thoracic core. Horripilation was episodic in both men and women but related significantly to torso skin temperature in men and percent body fat in women over the range of torso skin temperatures tested. There was no significant association between horripilation episodes and either the stabilization, immersion, or minimal exercise phase of the experiment. Core body temperature, as measured by rectal and esophageal thermistors, decreased significantly in men from 37.0 degrees C and 36.6 degrees C at 34 degrees C torso skin temperatures, but remained unchanged in women. The results suggest that skin cooling initiates horripilation whose occurrence and pattern are affected by different combinations of morphological or physiological variables in men and women.