Microneurography as a tool to investigate sympathetic nerve responses to environmental stress

Microneurography is an electrophysiological method to record impulse traffic in human peripheral nerve in situ. Using this method, not only sensory afferent nerve activity, but also postganglionic sympathetic efferent outflow leading to muscle (muscle sympathetic nerve activity-MSNA) and skin (skin sympathetic nerve activity-SSNA) can be recorded in human subjects. In this paper, the methodology of microneurography and following findings obtained by microneurography on sympathetic nerve responses to environmental stress in humans are reviewed. 1. MSNA is enhanced by gravitational stress, while being suppressed by simulated weightlessness through baroreflex mechanism to maintain hemodynamic homeostasis. 2. MSNA is enhanced by simulated high altitude through chemoreflex mechanism. 3. SSNA, which is composed of sudomotor and vasomotor discharges, plays an essential role in thermoregulation. There exist regional differences between SSNA responses to ambient temperature in the nerves innervating hairy and glabrous skin. The function of the sympathetic nervous system in humans has been so far generally analyzed indirectly by observing the effector organ activity or by measuring the plasma noradrenaline level. Meanwhile, a more direct method to approach the sympathetic nervous function in man, called microneurography, has been developed. By applying this technique, it is possible to investigate how the human sympathetic nervous system responds to different kinds of environmental stress (Mano, 1990, 1994). In this paper, the usefulness of microneurography as a research tool in environmental physiology is shown with a review of microneurographic findings on sympathetic nerve responses to environmental stress in human subjects.