The distribution of moisture in state-of-the-art firefighter protective clothing was analyzed on a sweating torso. After one hour of sweating, only 35 % of moisture evaporated from the layers, but after another hour of drying out, only about 10 % of the supplied moisture remained in the clothing. Over 75 % of this moisture accumulated in the innermost three layers of the clothing system consisting of five and six layers, respectively. The interaction of the moisture transport properties of the different layers proved to be very important for the distribution of moisture. In particular, the neighboring layer of the underwear turned out to be dominant for the moisture distribution. Depending on its hygroscopic properties, it could even act as a water barrier.

Publication InformationBecker, C., & Elliott, M. A. (2006 AbstractOur understanding of human visual perception generally rests on the assumption that conscious visual states represent the interaction of spatial structures in the environment and our nervous system. This assumption is questioned by circumstances where conscious visual states can be triggered by external stimulation which is not primarily spatially defined. Here, subjective colors and forms are evoked by flickering light while the precise nature of those experiences varies over flicker frequency and phase. WhatÕs more, the occurrence of one subjective experience appears to be associated with the occurrence of others. While these data indicate that conscious visual experience may be evoked directly by particular variations in the flow of spatially unstructured light over time, it must be assumed that the systems responsible are essentially temporal in character and capable of representing a variety of visual forms and colors, coded in different frequencies or at different phases of the same processing rhythm.

a b s t r a c tIn a recent study, Becker and Elliott [Becker, C., & Elliott, M. A. (2006). Flicker induced color and form: Interdependencies and relation to stimulation frequency and phase. Consciousness & Cognition, 15(1), described the appearance of subjective experiences of color and form induced by stimulation with intermittent light. While there have been electroencephalographic studies of similar hallucinatory forms, brain activity accompanying the appearance of hallucinatory colors was never measured. Using a priming procedure where observers were required to indicate the presence of one of eight target colors we compared electrophysiological correlates of hallucinatory color with brain states associated with other visual phenomena. Different target colors were accompanied by different patterns of EEG activation. However, in general, we found that the appearance of hallucinatory colors is preceded by a power decrease in the lower alpha band alongside an increase in gamma band frequencies. We argue that decreasing activity in the lower alpha band acts as a gating mechanism, inducing a switch in perception between different colors. The increasing gamma activation may correlate with the formation of a coherent conscious percept.

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