title: The relationship of cold and warmth cutaneous sensation to age and gender.
abstract: To evaluate cold and warmth cutaneous sensation separately, thermal discrimination thresholds (TDTs) for the foot were estimated for cold and warm stimuli in 71 normal subjects aged between 21 and 92 years. A "thermoaesthesiometer" operating on the Peltier principle was used. A rise of TDTs with age was found. Furthermore, female subjects appeared to have lower thresholds than males. Independent of age or gender, TDTs for cold stimuli were on average lower than for warm stimuli. In accordance with other studies, a large intraindividual variability was found, which emphasizes the necessity for repeated measurements.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Free University Hospital, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: H J
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Doeland
authors.forename: J J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Nauta
authors.forename: J B
authors.initials: JB
authors.lastname: van Zandbergen
authors.forename: H A
authors.initials: HA
authors.lastname: van der Eerden
authors.forename: N G
authors.initials: NG
authors.lastname: van Diemen
authors.forename: F W
authors.initials: FW
authors.lastname: Bertelsmann
authors.forename: J J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Heimans
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D003080:Cold Temperature; D005260:Female; D006358:Hot Temperature; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012737:Sex Factors; D012879:Skin Physiological Phenomena; D013697:Thermosensing / Q000502:physiology*