In this webinar, Dr. Jody Greaney provides an overview of microneurography to measure skin sympathetic nervous system activity, with a focus on data analysis, interpretation and its application coupled with laser Doppler flowmetry.
Climate change is the biggest global health threat of the 21st century and will continue to result in more intense, more frequent, and longer lasting extreme heat events, all of which have dire implications for nearly every aspect of human life. Older adults are particularly vulnerable to heat exposure, and excessive heat-related mortality in aged adults can be partly attributed to the cardiovascular consequences of age-related impairments in thermoregulatory reflex function. In a series of studies, Dr. Jody Greaney’s laboratory has used microneurography to directly record skin sympathetic nervous system activity in conscious aged humans during environmental provocations as a means to examine the efferent arc of the thermoregulatory reflex axis.
This presentation will provide a brief overview of the development of the technique of microneurography, with a focus on the unique issues related to its analysis, quantification and interpretation. It will also discuss how this approach, coupled with laser Doppler flowmetry-derived estimates of skin blood flow, has helped to advance our understanding of age-related alterations in thermoregulatory reflex function.
Key Topics Include:
- Understand the utility of microneurography as a means to measure and quantify skin sympathetic nervous system activity during thermal perturbations in humans
- Understand the considerations related to the analysis, quantification, and interpretation of microneurographic recordings of skin sympathetic nervous system activity
- Understand the application of these methodological approaches for assessing sympathetic control of microvascular function during whole-body environmental stressors
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Resources
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Presenters
Assistant Professor
Kinesiology
University of Texas at Arlington