Wave pattern analyses for cold vaso-oscillation

By immersion of rabbit's earlobes into a cold liquid at –5 to –10C, the blood vessels begin to constrict or dilate alternately. This is reflected in the vessel temperature: temperatures were recorded and the patterns analyzed. In each unit wave, the height and the period were designated as X and Y. From a series of about 10 waves, the standard deviation SD, coefficient of variation CV and correlation coefficient R for X and/or Y were obtained. These were considered as three fundamental parameters describing the characteristics of scatter diagrams for X and Y. The successive changes of RXY for the diagrams indicated in most cases the periodic tendency. In such cases, it can be regarded as a pantograph-like change of the successive scattered diagrams. The time course of CV also showed a similar tendency but nonperiodic time courses sometimes appeared. For weaker stimuli above 0C, the wave patterns tended to become more irregular.