TY - JOUR
T1 - Recording and quantifying sympathetic outflow to muscle and skin in humans
T2 - methods, caveats and challenges
AU - Macefield, Vaughan G.
N1 - Funding Information:
The author is supported by grants from the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia and gratefully acknowledges his support as a Senior Principal Research Fellow of the Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020, The Author(s).
PY - 2021/2
Y1 - 2021/2
N2 - The development of microneurography, in which the electrical activity of axons can be recorded via an intrafascicular microelectrode inserted through the skin into a peripheral nerve in awake human participants, has contributed a great deal to our understanding of sensorimotor control and the control of sympathetic outflow to muscle and skin. This review summarises the different approaches to recording muscle sympathetic nerve activity (MSNA) and skin sympathetic nerve activity (SSNA), together with discussion on the issues that determine the quality of a recording. Various analytical approaches are also described, with a primary emphasis on those developed by the author, aimed at maximizing the information content from recordings of postganglionic sympathetic nerve activity in awake humans.
AB - The development of microneurography, in which the electrical activity of axons can be recorded via an intrafascicular microelectrode inserted through the skin into a peripheral nerve in awake human participants, has contributed a great deal to our understanding of sensorimotor control and the control of sympathetic outflow to muscle and skin. This review summarises the different approaches to recording muscle sympathetic nerve activity (MSNA) and skin sympathetic nerve activity (SSNA), together with discussion on the issues that determine the quality of a recording. Various analytical approaches are also described, with a primary emphasis on those developed by the author, aimed at maximizing the information content from recordings of postganglionic sympathetic nerve activity in awake humans.
KW - Microelectrodes
KW - Microneurography
KW - Multi-unit recording
KW - Muscle sympathetic nerve activity
KW - Single-unit recording
KW - Skin sympathetic nerve activity
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85086853971&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/s10286-020-00700-6
DO - 10.1007/s10286-020-00700-6
M3 - Review Article
C2 - 32588247
AN - SCOPUS:85086853971
SN - 0959-9851
VL - 31
SP - 59
EP - 75
JO - Clinical Autonomic Research
JF - Clinical Autonomic Research
IS - 1
ER -