Heart rate variation and electroencephalograph - the potential physiological factors for thermal comfort study

Abstract

Human thermal comfort researches mainly focus on the relation between the environmental factors (e.g. ambient temperature, air humidity, and air velocity, etc.) and the thermal comfort sensation based on a large amount of subjective field investigations. Although some physiological factors, such as skin temperature and metabolism were used in many thermal comfort models,they are not enough to establish a perfect thermal comfort model. In this paper,another two physiological factors, i.e. heart rate variation (HRV) and electroencephalograph (EEG), are explored for the thermal comfort study. Experiments were performed to investigate how these physiological factors respond to the environmental temperatures, and what is the relationship between HRV and EEG and thermal comfort. The experimental results indicate that HRV and EEG may be related to thermal comfort, and they may be useful to understand the mechanism of thermal comfort.

Towards new methods and ways to create healthy and comfortable buildings

“…Already several physiological (stress) indicators (which may be increased by psychological reactions) have shown potential to be used in this process of human modelling: -EEG has been identified as an indicator for thermal comfort [86]: circadian changes in brain temperature might affect EEG frequencies -Heart Rate variability was related to indoor air temperature [86] and particulate matter [87], suggesting effects on the autonomic nervous system. Decreases in heart rate variability can be predictors of mortality [88,89].…”

Infrared thermography of human face for monitoring thermoregulation performance and estimating personal thermal comfort

“…The authors argued that the data communicated by the occupants on a daily basis account for the adaptive changes in the model. The authors in [24] used individuals' heart rate and electroencephalograph (EEG) measurements as a representation of thermal comfort and investigated the relationship between the measurements and environmental temperature variations. They found heart rate measurements are more correlated (with statistical significance) with thermal comfort votes collected during the data collection period.…”

A comparison of the thermal adaptability of people accustomed to air-conditioned environments and naturally ventilated environments

“…The higher the ratio of LF/HF, the more dominant the sympathetic activity is. If sympathetic activity is dominant, people will be in a state of excitement and anxiety and might feel more uncomfortable (Liu et al., 2008; Yao et al., 2009). As shown in Figure 6, when the two groups were exposed to the ‘heat shock’ environment, the ratio of LF/HF of the NV group varied little, but it increased sharply for the AC group.…”