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Gender modulation of respiratory variability during exercise in humans
Author(s) -
BuSha Brett F,
Hofmann Cory,
Hage Erik
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.23.1_supplement.1010.2
Subject(s) - detrended fluctuation analysis , audiology , respiratory system , correlation , medicine , physical therapy , cardiology , psychology , physical medicine and rehabilitation , mathematics , geometry , scaling
The integrative nature of the respiratory control system embeds temporal correlations in the variability of breathing. To test the hypothesis that gender and/or enhanced respiratory drive modifies temporal correlations in respiratory variability during exercise, 6 female and 6 male adult subjects were fitted with a resistive belt to measure chest volume and surface electrodes to measure ECG. Subjects breathed through the mouth while seated motionless on a recumbent bicycle and at two progressive levels of peddling. Breath to breath interval (BBI) was calculated for 144 consecutive breaths and beat to beat interval (RRI) was calculated from 400 consecutive R‐waves in the ECG, time‐indexed with the BBI data. Temporal correlations in the variability of BBI and RRI were quantified with detrended fluctuation analysis (DFA). A significant gender‐exercise interaction in the DFA of the BBI indicated that exercise elicited a greater decrease in the temporal correlation of BBI in female subjects (30%) as compared to male subjects (7%). Exercise resulted in a similar increase in temporal correlations (25%) in the RRI among all subjects. We speculate that the gender‐specific difference in the DFA measurement of the BBI is reflective of subtle differences in the control of breathing between male and female subjects. This work was supported by The College of New Jersey's Mentored Undergraduate Research Experience grant.