Grant: Travel Awards - Institute Community Support

The sympathetic (i.e. fight or flight) nervous system (SNS) plays an important role in regulating blood pressure by altering blood flow through large blood vessels. It has been suggested that the sympathetic-blood pressure relationship, termed neurovascular transduction (NVT) differs between the sexes. However, this evidence comes from time-averaged data, whereas NVT functions on a short-term basis in which changes in blood pressure can be observed during each individual heart beat. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine the effect of sex on changes in blood pressure during consecutive heart beats following activation and inactivation of the SNS. In line with previous research, we predicted that women would demonstrate reduced blood pressure responses following activation of the SNS. We used gold standard measures of neural control (microneurography to directly measure activity of the sympathetic nervous system), blood pressure (per heart beat), and a custom analysis tool which allows us to examine the time-sensitive relationships between nerves and blood pressure outcomes. In contrast to our prediction, we saw that women demonstrated a greater blood pressure response following activation of the SNS when compared to men. In conclusion, our findings suggest that the short-term changes in the sympathetic-blood pressure relationship may be enhanced in women relative to men.