Sport and dance injuries have increased despite improvements in coaching techniques and medical care. Other factors, including psychological ones, were therefore thought to play a role in injury vulnerability. Most of the attempts to explain how psychological variables can affect an athlete's predisposition to injury have been based on anxiety or stress concepts. In this survey type study an interactive approach to stress has been adopted with the goal of finding a relationship between stress and injury in a group of professional ballet dancers. No simple direct relationship was found. Multiple regression analysis was performed and a more complicated relationship between stress indicators and injury was found. When an attempt was made to investigate the significant interaction, no significant correlations were found. However, the correlations were found to be large and negative. This could indicate that if the sample size had been larger significant correlations may have been found. / Psychology / M.A. (Psychology)

Sport and dance injuries have increased despite improvements in coaching techniques and medical care. Other factors, including psychological ones, were therefore thought to play a role in injury vulnerability. Most of the attempts to explain how psychological variables can affect an athlete's predisposition to injury have been based on anxiety or stress concepts. In this survey type study an interactive approach to stress has been adopted with the goal of finding a relationship between stress and injury in a group of professional ballet dancers. No simple direct relationship was found. Multiple regression analysis was performed and a more complicated relationship between stress indicators and injury was found. When an attempt was made to investigate the significant interaction, no significant correlations were found. However, the correlations were found to be large and negative. This could indicate that if the sample size had been larger significant correlations may have been found. / Psychology / M.A. (Psychology)

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Gender differences in the basal function of autonomic cardiovascular control are well documented. Consistent baroreflex (BRx) studies suggest that women have higher tonic parasympathetic cardiac activation compared to men. Later in life and concomitant with menopause, a significant reduction in the capacity of the BRx in females increases their risk to develop hypertension, even exceeding that of age-matched males. Loss of sex hormones is but one factor. In female rats, we previously identified a distinct myelinated baroreceptor (BR) neuronal phenotype termed Ah-type, which exhibits functional dynamics and ionic currents that are a mix of those observed in barosensory afferents functionally identified as myelinated A-type or unmyelinated C-type. Interestingly, Ah-type afferents constitute nearly 50% of the total population of myelinated aortic BR in female but less than 2% in male rat. We hypothesized that an afferent basis for sexual dimorphism in BRx function exists. Specifically, we investigated the potential functional impact Ah-type afferents have upon the aortic BRx and what changes, if any, loss of sex hormones through ovariectomy brings upon such functions. We assessed electrophysiological and reflexogenic differences associated with the left aortic depressor nerve (ADN) from adult male, female, and ovariectomized female (OVX) Sprague-Dawley rats. Our results revealed sexually dimorphic conduction velocity (CV) profiles. A distinct, slower myelinated fiber volley was apparent in compound action potential (CAP) recordings from female aortic BR fibers, with an amplitude and CV not observed in males. Subsequent BRx studies demonstrated that females exhibited significantly greater BRx responses compared to males at myelinated-specific intensities. Ovariectomy induced an increased overall temporal dispersion in the CAP of OVX females that may have contributed to their attenuated BRx responses. Interestingly, the most significant changes in depressor dynamics occurred at electrical thresholds and frequencies most closely aligned with Ah-type BR fibers. Collectively, we provide evidence that, in females, two anatomically distinct myelinated afferent pathways contribute to the integrated BRx function, whereas in males only one exists. These functional differences may partly account for the enhanced control of blood pressure in females. Furthermore, Ah-type afferents may provide a neuromodulatory pathway uniquely associated with the hormonal regulation of BRx function.