When confronted with challenges to thermal neutrality (heat or cold stresses), the body strives to control Tc through physiological adjustments, and Tc provides the major feedback to the brain to coordinate this control. While the local and mean skin temperature are important for providing sensory input, Tsk varies greatly with ambient temperature, averaging about 33 °C at thermoneutrality and reaching 36 to 37 °C under conditions of heavy work in the heat. It can drop considerably during whole-body and local exposure to cold; tactile sensitivity occurs between 15 and 20 °C, whereas the critical temperature for manual dexterity is between 12 and 16 °C. The upper and lower pain threshold values for Tsk are approximately 43 °C and 10 °C, respectively.
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