Abstract
The present study was designed to see what the local cooling of different body regions especially head and neck, hands and feet effect physiological responses in cold environment. Four male subjects wore garments covering whole body except face and rested for 20 min and then they rested for 40 min with uncovered head, neck, hands and feet, respectively in a cold environment(10$\pm$1$^{\circ}C$, 50$\pm$5%R.H.) 1. Rectal temperature increased when hands and feet were exposed to cold environment respectively, and when head and neck, hands and feet were exposed to cold environment together. 2. Exposed skin temperatures fell in cold environment. And hands temperature was lower than any other exposed skin temperatures. The hands temperature was significantly lower when head was exposed than when head was covered. And the feet temperature were significantly lower when hands were exposed than when hands were covered. 3. Mean skin temperature was the lowest when head and neck, hands and feet were exposed simultaneously, In conclusion, skin temperatures of extremities were decreased due to exposure to the cold environment. Especially upper extremities were lower than lower extremities by exposed parts of the body. It seemed that the extremities played the role of cold receptors but head and neck didn't. And there were large heat losses from the unprotected head and neck. In cold environment of 1$0^{\circ}C$ , thus, it is suggested for the purpose of thermoregulatory responses that head and neck would be covered and extremities would be exposed, especially upper extremities.