Measuring Facial Skin Temperature Changes Caused by Mental Work-Load with Infrared Thermography

Abstract

We evaluated the temperature change of facial parts as affected by mental work-load (MWL) using infrared thermography. Under MWL, autonomic nerves are active, and the skin surface temperature changes with muscular contraction. In particular, the nasal part of the face experiences the most intense change. Based on this, in previous studies MWL was evaluated by using nasal skin temperature. However, we considered whether other parts of the face experience temperature change under MWL. Therefore, in this study, to identify which other parts of the face experience temperature change, we performed an experiment to acquire facial thermal images when subjects perform a mental arithmetic calculation task. Our results indicate that, in addition to the nasal part, the temperatures around the lips and cheek might also increase under MWL.