Project Title
The use of bouts during activity decreases women's core temperature more than men's
Document Type
Event
Start Date
10-5-2019 3:30 PM
End Date
10-5-2019 6:30 PM
Description
Recent studies have recognized the importance of water transport for the subsistence strategies of many human populations. We are interested in how thermoregulatory strategies during water transport might compare with over-ground transport. For example, when people practice “bout” walking—walking in short bursts interspersed with periods of rest—they reset hypothalamic regulation of pace and potentially are able to walk further. Here we test whether bout-locomotion might also aid people in minimizing the heat gain during canoeing. We monitored eight people (4 men; 4 women) independently paddling continuously across a lake (avg ambient temp=23.9°C; avg humidity=61.7%). We measured participants’ blood perfusion, heart rate (HR), core body temperature, and paddling speed during a trial, which consisted of periods of paddling (6 or 12 minutes) regularly interspersed with periods of rest (also 6 or 12 minutes). A single repeated-measures ANOVA was done for each dependent variable, with sex as a factor. People’s paddling speed and HR did not change whether they had a long rest (LRE) or short rest (SRE) prior to paddling (p=0.368; p=0.489), nor was there a significant sex effect on speed or HR (p=0.368; p=0.560); however, females’ core temperature decreased during long rows (LRO) when the LROs were preceded by a LRE, whereas their core temperature increased when the LRO was preceded by a SRE (p=0.064). This is potentially due to blood perfusion to the biceps during LROs being dependent upon the length of the preceding rest (p<0.001). Thus, bout-paddling might be a strategy for maintaining thermoregulation among women.
Discipline
Biology
Research Mentor(s)
Dr. Cara Wall-Scheffler
Copyright Status
http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
Additional Rights Information
Copyright held by author(s).
The use of bouts during activity decreases women's core temperature more than men's
Recent studies have recognized the importance of water transport for the subsistence strategies of many human populations. We are interested in how thermoregulatory strategies during water transport might compare with over-ground transport. For example, when people practice “bout” walking—walking in short bursts interspersed with periods of rest—they reset hypothalamic regulation of pace and potentially are able to walk further. Here we test whether bout-locomotion might also aid people in minimizing the heat gain during canoeing. We monitored eight people (4 men; 4 women) independently paddling continuously across a lake (avg ambient temp=23.9°C; avg humidity=61.7%). We measured participants’ blood perfusion, heart rate (HR), core body temperature, and paddling speed during a trial, which consisted of periods of paddling (6 or 12 minutes) regularly interspersed with periods of rest (also 6 or 12 minutes). A single repeated-measures ANOVA was done for each dependent variable, with sex as a factor. People’s paddling speed and HR did not change whether they had a long rest (LRE) or short rest (SRE) prior to paddling (p=0.368; p=0.489), nor was there a significant sex effect on speed or HR (p=0.368; p=0.560); however, females’ core temperature decreased during long rows (LRO) when the LROs were preceded by a LRE, whereas their core temperature increased when the LRO was preceded by a SRE (p=0.064). This is potentially due to blood perfusion to the biceps during LROs being dependent upon the length of the preceding rest (p<0.001). Thus, bout-paddling might be a strategy for maintaining thermoregulation among women.
Rights Statement
