Abstract：
Muscle sympathetic nerve responses to sudden sensory stimuli have been elucidated in several studies on young healthy men, showing reproducible interindividual differences ranging from varying degrees of inhibition to no significant change, with very few subjects showing significant excitation. These individual response patterns have been shown to predict the neural response to mental stress, and coupled blood pressure responses. The aim of this study was to investigate whether pre-menopausal healthy women show similar neural and blood pressure responses. Muscle sympathetic nerve recordings from the peroneal nerve were performed in 34 healthy women (mean age 27±8 years) during sudden sensory stimuli (electrical stimuli to a finger) and 3 minutes of mental stress (forced arithmetics). After sensory stimuli 18 women showed varying degrees of inhibition of muscle sympathetic nerve activity (burst amplitude mean reduction 60%, range 34 to 100%). The remaining 16 showed no inhibition (mean 5%, range -31 to 28%; one subject exhibiting excitation). During 3 minutes of mental stress the normalized change in burst incidence for muscle sympathetic nerve activity correlated with the percentage change of muscle sympathetic nerve activity induced by the sensory stimulation protocol (r=0.64, p=0.0042). In contrast to men, the neural responses did not predict changes in blood pressure. Thus, pre-menopausal females show a similar range of individual differences in defence-related muscle sympathetic neural responses as men, but no associated differences in blood pressure responses. Whether these patterns are unchanged after menopause remains to be investigated.
摘要：
肌肉交感神经对突然感觉刺激的反应已经在一些对年轻健康男性的研究中得到了阐明，表现出可重复的个体差异，从不同程度的抑制到无显著变化，很少有受试者表现出显著的兴奋。这些个体反应模式已被证明可以预测神经对精神压力的反应，和耦合的血压反应。这项研究的目的是调查绝经前健康女性是否表现出相似的神经和血压反应。在突然的感觉刺激（手指电刺激）和3分钟的精神压力（强迫算术）期间，对34名健康女性（平均年龄27±8岁）进行了腓骨神经的肌肉交感神经记录。经感觉刺激后18名妇女表现出不同程度的肌肉交感神经活动抑制(爆发幅度平均减少60%,范围为34到100%)。其余16例无抑制作用(平均5%，范围-31%至28%；一名受试者表现出兴奋)。在3分钟的精神压力期间，肌肉交感神经活动的爆发发生率的归一化变化与感觉刺激方案引起的肌肉交感神经活动的百分比变化相关（r=0.64，p=0.0042）。与男人相比，神经反应不能预测血压的变化.因此，绝经前女性在防御相关的肌肉交感神经反应中表现出与男性相似的个体差异，但血压反应没有相关差异。这些模式在绝经后是否不变仍有待研究。
