GENDERREFLEX:
A STUDY ON THE EFFECT OF GENDER IN HUMAN SKELETOMOTOR REFLEXES

Aims of the project:

1) To establish and confirm a newly developed methodology, peristimulus frequencygram, which has been proven to be superior to the currently available methods for determining human reflexes (please refer to Figure 1 and Türker, K.S. and Powers, R.K., Black box revisited: A technique for estimating postsynaptic potentials in neurones. Trends in Neuroscience, 28:379-386. 2005).
2) Using the new method, to determine whether there is a genuine gender based difference in reflex responses, whether these differences vary through the lifespan of individuals, and whether fatigue has sexually dimorphic effects on reflexes.

3) To advise researchers and general public on possible gender differences in reflex activity and the prophylactic strategies involved in late age physical activity that is known to be beneficial to the older population.

These aims will be achieved via a state of the art technique developed by the chair holder, described below.

Below in Figure 1, the classical method of reflex determination is compared with the new prestimulus frequencygram (PSF) technique in regularly discharging motoneurons in rat brain slices. As can be observed, althought the classical system (Peristimulus time histogram, PSTH) makes several errors in estimating reflex pathways, PSF analysis technique illustrate the synaptic potential correctly and hence determine the reflex connection much more accurately. With the advantage of this new method, this project will investigate muscle spindle reflexes in several muscles in human volunteers of both sexes and from young to elderly to determine whether this reflex is influenced by gender, age and fatigue of the subject.

 
 
   
   
   

 

Hypothesis:

Since the classical techniques that are used to investigate reflexes have recently been proven to contain significant errors, and that we have illustrated that discharge rate of single motor units deliver the reflex connection with minimal error, we hypothesise that using the new method we will discover whether there is a genuine age and gender-based difference in human spindle reflexes and whether they are exaggerated by fatigue. This approach will set the norm for redefining reflex circuits in the human central nervous system and will help correct and re-characterize many of the beliefs on gender and age based changes in human reflexes.