title: Sympathetic neural recruitment patterns during the Valsalva maneuver.
abstract: Sympathetic nerve activity is an important regulator of blood pressure and blood flow in humans. Our understanding about how sympathetic neurons are recruited during baroreflex stress is limited. This paper investigates the sympathetic neural recruitment patterns during the Valsalva maneuver. Using microneurography, muscle sympathetic nerve activity was recorded in seven healthy subjects during baseline and the Valsalva maneuver. A new algorithm for detection and classification of action potentials was employed to study the differences between the recruitment of sympathetic neurons during baseline and the Valsalva maneuver. The data suggests that the Valsalva maneuver increases the number of spikes per sympathetic bursts and also recruits at least one additional new cluster of larger, faster conducting neurons. Also, action potential's latencies (i.e., inverse of conduction velocity) were shifted downward for all action potential clusters during this maneuver.
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Neurovascular Research Laboratory, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Western Ontario, London, ON N6A 3K7, Canada. asalmanp@uwo.ca
authors.forename: Aryan
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Salmanpour
authors.forename: Maria F
authors.initials: MF
authors.lastname: Frances
authors.forename: Ruma
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Goswami
authors.forename: J Kevin
authors.initials: JK
authors.lastname: Shoemaker
mesh_terms: D000200:Action Potentials; D000328:Adult; D000465:Algorithms; D017704:Baroreflex; D001794:Blood Pressure / Q000502:physiology; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009132:Muscles / Q000502:physiology*; D009415:Nerve Net; D016571:Neural Networks, Computer; D009474:Neurons / Q000502:physiology*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012815:Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted; D013564:Sympathetic Nervous System / Q000473:pathology; D014636:Valsalva Maneuver / Q000502:physiology*