[The effect of cooling using ice on the impulse activity of the skin cold thermoreceptors in the rabbit].

The temperature of the rabbit skin was reduced from 32.8 +/- 0.5 degrees C to 4.8 +/- 0.6 degrees C. The majority of the thermoreceptors responded to the cooling with an initial increase of the firing rate up to the maximum and its subsequent decrease up to its complete cessation. The lower temperature limits varied from 15 to 4 degrees C in different skin cold thermoreceptors. Some thermoreceptors retained high firing rate even at the temperature 6-8 degrees C. After removing the ice and warming up of the skin, the firing rate increased again up to the maximum and decreased subsequently to the minimum. Thermosensitive structures seem to exist in the skin transmitting the information on low values of the skin temperature to the centres of thermoregulation.