Use of skin sympathetic nerve activity for the automatic control of an air-conditioning system

As the first stage of a long-term project aimed at developing an automatic control system for external devices which utilizes signals from the nervous system, the current study utilized changes in the skin sympathetic nervous activity (SSNA) measured microneurographically in order to accomplish the switching control of an external device between the cooling and heating modes. The number of SSNA (vasomotor) bursts decreased in proportion to the increase in the thermal sensation of the subject, demonstrating the possibility of operating an air-conditioner by using feedback from the number of SSNA bursts.