BACKGROUND Resting sympathetic nervous system activity is increased in heart failure. Whether sympathetic nervous system responses during exercise are increased is controversial. Furthermore, the role of muscle metaboreceptors and central command in regulating sympathetic outflow has been largely unexplored. METHODS AND RESULTS Muscle sympathetic nerve activity (MSNA, peroneal nerve) was meas...

Many Studies suggest that changes in sympathetic nerve activity in the central nervous system might have a crucial role in blood pressure control. The present paper discusses evidence in support of the concept that the brain renin-angiotensin system (RAS) might be linked to sympathetic nerve activity in hypertension. The amount of neurotransmitter release from sympathetic nerve endings can be r...

Transmissible spongiform encephalopathies are commonly propagated by extracerebral inoculation of the infectious agent. Indirect evidence suggests that entry into the central nervous system occurs via the peripheral nervous system. Here we have investigated the role of the sympathetic nervous system in prion neuroinvasion. Following intraperitoneal prion inoculation, chemical or immunological s...

he sympathetic nervous system of the heart is critically involved in the maintenance of cardiovascular homoeostasis by regulating cardiac contractility, conduction, heart frequency and peripheral vasoconstriction.1 It has been shown that a dysfunctional cardiac sympathetic nervous system exerts detrimental effects on the structural and functional integrity of the myocardium, leading to a marked...

Need-to-know facts about the nervous system: fundamentals The nervous system can be divided into three main anatomical divisions: • the central nervous system (CNS): consists of the brain, brainstem and spinal cord • the peripheral nervous system (PNS): comprising the nerves that leave the brainstem and the spinal cord • the autonomic nervous system (ANS): includes the sympathetic and parasympa...

Fifty Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients between the age group of 20 to 60 years were investigated for sympathetic autonomic functions using standard tests. All the patients liable to develop dysautonomia or having a treatment interfering with autonomic nervous system were excluded. Previous studies to evalute sympathetic nervous system involvement used only a single test like sweating response...

The autonomic nervous system, composed of sympathetic- and para-sympathetic neurons, plays essential roles in a variety of physiological functions including homeostasis and responses to external stimuli. We here present an overview of recent findings concerning how the sympathetic nervous system is formed during the early development, paying particular attention to the morphogenesis of those ti...

n 1664, the first anatomically correct depiction of the sympathetic nervous system came from Thomas Willis and his circle of London anatomists, 1 included in The Anatomy of the Brain and Nerves, 1664 (Figure 1). This, the first work dedicated completely to the nervous system, also described the arterial loops at the base of the brain, which we now know as the Circle of Willis. 1 Christopher Wre...

This study examined the role of arginine vasopressin in the pressor response to vagal cold block and evaluated a possible interaction between vasopressin and the sympathetic nervous system during vagal block in conscious dogs with (carotid sinus intact) and without (sinoaortic denervated) functional arterial baroreflexes. In both carotid sinus intact and sinoaortic denervated dogs, elimination ...