What is it about?
The knee jerk reflex is a simple clinical test where the lower leg kicks out involuntarily in response to a blow just below the knee . We show that on average this is faster in normal women than in men, a process we suggest is due to women using nerves that conduct electrical impulses faster than males during this process
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Why is it important?
Faster reflexes in women are well known, however this difference is often described as being due to their smaller size. However here we show that this may actually be due to the nerves that are used to control muscle movement may actually be faster than for males under certain conditions; an idea that is contray to the idea that male nerves are bigger than for females with the expectation that their reflexes should be quicker than for females. Our finding provide evidence for clear differences in the behaviour of nerves between the sexes, in doing so it raises the question as to what happens under situations of clinical feminization and masculization
Perspectives
The experimental approach used in this research was relatively simple and straightforward, athough not without its critics, however the data shows what is shows.. By placing it on a pre-repint server, our data is now freely available to all to see, and lays down the challenge central to good science: is it reproducible?
Paul Smith
University of Nottingham
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Females recruit faster alpha motor neurons than males during the patellar stretch reflex: evidence for neurophysiological sexual dimorphism, October 2017, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press,
DOI: 10.1101/202713.
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