Journal of Physiology-London最新文献

{"title":"Menstrual cycles and macrocycles: Science, not socials, is doing the heavy lifting","authors":"Clare Minahan","doi":"10.1113/JP288096","DOIUrl":"10.1113/JP288096","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":50088,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Physiology-London","volume":"603 5","pages":"1023-1024"},"PeriodicalIF":4.7,"publicationDate":"2025-02-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1113/JP288096","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143505812","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Unveiling protective mechanisms of wild olive (acebuche) oil in retinal pigment epithelial cells with hypertensive phenotype.","authors":"Álvaro Santana-Garrido, Claudia Reyes-Goya, Pablo Espinosa-Martín, Rosa M Troya-Toledo, Helder André, Alfonso Mate, Carmen M Vázquez","doi":"10.1113/JP287367","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1113/JP287367","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Arterial hypertension leads to oxidative and inflammatory imbalances, triggering hypertensive organ damage through several pathways. We have previously described the antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties of olive oil extracted from the wild olive tree (Olea europaea var. sylvestris, acebuche, ACE) against hypertensive ocular damage. The aim of this study was to clarify the molecular mechanisms involved in the beneficial effect of ACE oil on hypertensive eyes, focusing on nitric oxide (NO)/arginine metabolism. To this end, we used retinal pigment epithelial cells (ARPE19) treated with angiotensin II as a hypertensive-like model. These cells were also incubated with extracellular vesicles (EVs) isolated from animals fed diets enriched in either ACE oil or extra virgin olive oil (EVOO), with the latter serving as a reference oil for comparison. Our results showed that circulating ACE oil- and EVOO-derived EVs can modulate the production of reactive oxygen species by both NADPH oxidase and mitochondria, the activity and expression of l-arginine transporter CAT-1, angiotensin AT1 and AT2 receptors, and arginases, as well as the levels of NO and asymmetric dimethylarginine. Our findings demonstrate that: (1) changes in NO metabolism are involved in the protective effects of wild olive oil against hypertension-related ocular oxidative stress, and (2) these modifications appear to be mediated by EVs. KEY POINTS: l-Arginine transport contributes to the beneficial effect of wild olive oil on the eyes of hypertensive mice. Extravesicular vesicles from wild olive oil (ACE-EVs) prevent changes in nitric oxide (metabolism in hypertensive-like retinal pigment epithelial cells. Reactive oxygen species produced by both NADPH oxidase and mitochondria can be mitigated by ACE-EV treatment.</p>","PeriodicalId":50088,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Physiology-London","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.7,"publicationDate":"2025-02-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143494321","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Response to Dr Zittermann","authors":"Sophie E. Davies,&nbsp;Oliver J. Perkin,&nbsp;James A. Betts,&nbsp;Javier T. Gonzalez,&nbsp;Martin Hewison,&nbsp;Carl Jenkinson,&nbsp;Kerry S. Jones,&nbsp;Sarah R. Meadows,&nbsp;Damon A. Parkington,&nbsp;Albert Koulman,&nbsp;Dylan Thompson","doi":"10.1113/JP288482","DOIUrl":"10.1113/JP288482","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":50088,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Physiology-London","volume":"603 5","pages":"1329"},"PeriodicalIF":4.7,"publicationDate":"2025-02-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143494310","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Stellate ganglion neuromodulation: A novel approach to cardiac dysfunction in myocardial infarction and beyond","authors":"Alex S.Y. Wang,&nbsp;Tristan W. Dorey","doi":"10.1113/JP288271","DOIUrl":"10.1113/JP288271","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":50088,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Physiology-London","volume":"603 7","pages":"2165-2166"},"PeriodicalIF":4.7,"publicationDate":"2025-02-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143494314","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Homologous amacrine to amacrine gap junction coupling serves communication between neighbour OFF alpha retinal ganglion cells.","authors":"Gergely Szarka, Anett Futácsi, Tamás Kovács-Öller, Béla Völgyi","doi":"10.1113/JP287699","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1113/JP287699","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Multiplexed visual coding by retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) has gained much support. Mouse transient OFF alpha RGCs (tOFFα RGCs) are excellent subjects to study this issue as they form direct RGC-RGC gap junctions (GJs) that serve spike synchronization, population coding and likely information multiplexing. In addition, tOFFα RGCs maintain GJs with a population of wide-field amacrine cells (ACs) that have been suspected to mediate an additional, loose medium-scale correlation of tOFFα RGC spikes. However, the spatial and temporal constraints of the GJ-mediated AC-RGC signalling have yet to be tested directly via a combination of morphological and functional approaches. Here we show that AC-mediated medium-scale spike correlations are strongly related to spike bursts. On the other hand, our data also show that coupled ACs' somata form spatially separated clusters each overlapping with only a single tOFFα RGC dendritic arbour suggesting the existence of GJ-coupled tOFFα RGC-AC functional units. This finding seemingly argues against the hypothesis that ACs distribute common noise for burst-based medium-scale RGC spike correlations. However, we also found a high incidence of AC-AC GJ connections thereby forming the morphological substrate for the interconnection of functional units to correlate spike bursts on a medium time scale. These data thus suggest that besides encoding visual information by a single cell, tOFFα RGCs utilize RGC-RGC GJs to directly connect RGCs as well as AC-AC GJs to interconnect tOFFα RGC functional units to mediate two forms of population codes via precise spike synchronization and loose burst correlations, respectively. KEY POINTS: Approach detector retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) and their electrically coupled amacrine cells (ACs) show morphological attributes of functional units. These coupled ACs and RGCs share their main excitatory drive. RGC-AC gap junctions underlie the generation of RGC action potential bursts. AC-AC gap junctions interconnect neighbouring RGC functional units to correlate spike bursts and underlie medium-scale spike correlations. These results broaden our understanding of feature detection mechanisms in the retinal circuitry, the prerequisite of next generation retina prostheses.</p>","PeriodicalId":50088,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Physiology-London","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.7,"publicationDate":"2025-02-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143484515","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Modulation of cardiomyocyte contractility and action potentials with chemogenetic chloride currents","authors":"Muhammed Sönmez,&nbsp;Tim Stüdemann,&nbsp;Christoph Manthey,&nbsp;Anita Covic,&nbsp;Nancy Shehata,&nbsp;Junsoo Im,&nbsp;Barbora Schwarzova,&nbsp;Judith Rössinger,&nbsp;Rajiven Srikantharajah,&nbsp;Aya Shibamiya,&nbsp;Edzard Schwedhelm,&nbsp;Thomas Eschenhagen,&nbsp;Torsten Christ,&nbsp;Florian Weinberger","doi":"10.1113/JP286428","DOIUrl":"10.1113/JP286428","url":null,"abstract":"&lt;div&gt;\u0000 \u0000 &lt;section&gt;\u0000 \u0000 \u0000 &lt;div&gt;Transient perturbation of electrical activity is used in neuroscience to study the impact of specific neuronal cell populations on brain function. Similarly, cardiomyocyte (CM) physiology can be controlled by the activation of artificially expressed ion channels. Pharmacologically selective actuator modules (PSAMs) are engineered ligand-gated ion channels that can be activated with small molecules. We aimed to use the ‘inhibitory’ PSAMs, (i) PSAM&lt;sup&gt;L141F,Y115F-GlyR&lt;/sup&gt; (PSAM-GlyR) and (ii) PSAM&lt;sup&gt;L131G,Q139L,Y217F&lt;/sup&gt; (ultrapotent PSAM&lt;sup&gt;4&lt;/sup&gt;-GlyR), which consist of modified α7-nicotinergic acetylcholine receptor ligand binding domains and the ion pore domain of the glycine receptor, to modulate CM physiology with chloride currents. We employed CRISPR/Cas9 to integrate PSAM-GlyR and PSAM&lt;sup&gt;4&lt;/sup&gt;-GlyR in induced pluripotent stem cells, differentiated CMs and generated engineered heart tissue (EHT). Video optical force recordings, sharp microelectrode action potential measurements and patch-clamp technique were used to characterize PSAM-GlyR and PSAM&lt;sup&gt;4&lt;/sup&gt;-GlyR CMs. PSAM-GlyR and PSAM&lt;sup&gt;4&lt;/sup&gt;-GlyR activation allowed titration of chloride currents in a reversible manner. We found that chloride currents modulated action potential characteristics. Patch clamp recordings showed that channel activation resulted in chloride-driven currents that depolarized the cell. In EHT, this resulted in a stop of contractility that was fully reversible after wash-out. We provide a comprehensive characterization of the chemogenetic tools PSAM-GlyR and PSAM&lt;sup&gt;4&lt;/sup&gt;-GlyR in CMs, demonstrating their utility to modulate CM activity &lt;i&gt;in vitro&lt;/i&gt; (PSAM-GlyR and PSAM&lt;sup&gt;4&lt;/sup&gt;-GlyR) but also potential for &lt;i&gt;in vivo&lt;/i&gt; applications (PSAM&lt;sup&gt;4&lt;/sup&gt;-GlyR).\u0000\u0000 &lt;figure&gt;\u0000 &lt;div&gt;&lt;picture&gt;\u0000 &lt;source&gt;&lt;/source&gt;&lt;/picture&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;\u0000 &lt;/div&gt;\u0000 &lt;/figure&gt;\u0000 &lt;/div&gt;\u0000 &lt;/section&gt;\u0000 \u0000 &lt;section&gt;\u0000 \u0000 &lt;h3&gt; Key points&lt;/h3&gt;\u0000 \u0000 &lt;div&gt;\u0000 &lt;ul&gt;\u0000 \u0000 &lt;li&gt;Pharmacologically selective actuator modules (PSAMs) are engineered ligand-gated ion channels that can be activated with small molecules.&lt;/li&gt;\u0000 \u0000 &lt;li&gt;These chemogenetic tools have been applied in neuroscience to inhibit neuronal activity.&lt;/li&gt;\u0000 \u0000 &lt;li&gt;Chemogenetic tools can also be used to modulate cardiomyocyte physiology.&lt;/li&gt;\u0000 \u0000 &lt;li&gt;Activation of the PSAMs, PSAM-GlyR and PSAM&lt;sup&gt;4&lt;/sup&gt;-GlyR depolarized cardiomyocytes and thus stopped cardiac contractility.&lt;/li&gt;\u0000 \u0000 &lt;li&gt;Our study characterizes novel tools that can be ","PeriodicalId":50088,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Physiology-London","volume":"603 6","pages":"1399-1415"},"PeriodicalIF":4.7,"publicationDate":"2025-02-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1113/JP286428","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143484530","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Blue plaque review series: A.V. Hill, athletic records and the birth of exercise physiology","authors":"Mark Burnley,&nbsp;Anni Vanhatalo,&nbsp;David C. Poole,&nbsp;Andrew M. Jones","doi":"10.1113/JP288130","DOIUrl":"10.1113/JP288130","url":null,"abstract":"<p>One hundred years ago, A.V. Hill authored three manuscripts analysing athletic world records from a physiological perspective. That analysis, grounded in Hill's understanding of contemporary muscle bioenergetics, provides a fascinating sketch of the thoughts and speculations of one of the fathers of exercise physiology. In this review, we reflect on Hill's prose with the benefit of 100 years of hindsight, and illustrate how Hill was able to draw startlingly accurate conclusions from what limited data were available on the physiology of intense exercise. Hill discusses the energetics of running, swimming, rowing and cycling in both males and females, as well as addressing exercise performance in horses and the mechanics of jumping. He also considers sports nutrition, pacing strategy and ultra-endurance exercise. Perhaps most impactfully, he establishes that the speed–duration relationship has characteristics that reflect the underlying physiological basis of exercise performance. That physiology, in turn, differs depending on the duration of the event itself, providing one of the first descriptions of the task-dependent nature of mechanisms limiting exercise tolerance. A remarkable feature of Hill's papers is that they were written just a few years before a major revolution in muscle biochemistry, and yet Hill was still able to develop conceptually sound ideas about human performance. His hypotheses require only minor revision to bring them into line with current understanding. In reaching their centenary, therefore, the surprising feature of these papers is not how well they have aged, but how relevant they remain.\u0000\u0000 <figure>\u0000 <div><picture>\u0000 <source></source></picture><p></p>\u0000 </div>\u0000 </figure></p>","PeriodicalId":50088,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Physiology-London","volume":"603 6","pages":"1361-1374"},"PeriodicalIF":4.7,"publicationDate":"2025-02-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1113/JP288130","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143484513","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Optic nerve injury impairs intrinsic mechanisms underlying electrical activity in a resilient retinal ganglion cell.","authors":"Thomas E Zapadka, Nicholas M Tran, Jonathan B Demb","doi":"10.1113/JP286414","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1113/JP286414","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) are the sole output neurons of the retina and convey visual information to the brain via their axons in the optic nerve. Following injury to the optic nerve, RGC axons degenerate and many cells die. For example, a model of axon injury, the optic nerve crush (ONC), kills ∼80% of RGCs after 2 weeks. Surviving cells are biased towards 'resilient' types, including several with sustained firing to light stimulation. RGC survival may depend on activity, and there is limited understanding of how or why activity changes following optic nerve injury. Here we quantified the electrophysiological properties of a highly resilient RGC type, the sustained ON-Alpha (AlphaONS) RGC, 7 days after ONC with extracellular and whole-cell patch clamp recording. Both light- and current-driven firing were reduced after ONC, but synaptic inputs were largely intact. Resting membrane potential and input resistance were relatively unchanged, while voltage-gated currents were impaired, including a reduction in voltage-gated sodium channel current and channel density in the axon initial segment. Hyperpolarization or chelation of intracellular calcium partially rescued firing rates. Extracellular recordings at 3 days following ONC showed normal light-evoked firing from AlphaONS RGCs and other Alpha RGCs, including susceptible types. These data suggest that an injured resilient RGC reduces its activity by 1 week after injury as a consequence of reduced voltage-gated current and downregulation of intrinsic excitability via a Ca²⁺-dependent mechanism. Reduced excitability may be due to degradation of the axon but could also be energetically beneficial, preserving energy for survival and regeneration. KEY POINTS: Retinal ganglion cell (RGC) types show diverse rates of survival after axon injury. A resilient RGC type (sustained ON-Alpha RGC) maintains its synaptic inputs 1 week after injury. The resilient RGC type shows diminished firing and reduced expression of axon initial segment genes 1 week after injury Activity deficits reflect dysfunction of intrinsic properties (Na⁺ channels, intracellular Ca²⁺), not changes to synaptic input. Both resilient and susceptible Alpha RGC types show intact firing at 3 days after injury, suggesting that activity at this time point does not predict resilience.</p>","PeriodicalId":50088,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Physiology-London","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.7,"publicationDate":"2025-02-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143477159","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The pupillary respiratory-phase response: pupil size is smallest around inhalation onset and largest during exhalation","authors":"Martin Schaefer,&nbsp;Sebastiaan Mathôt,&nbsp;Mikael Lundqvist,&nbsp;Johan N. Lundström,&nbsp;Artin Arshamian","doi":"10.1113/JP287205","DOIUrl":"10.1113/JP287205","url":null,"abstract":"&lt;div&gt;\u0000 \u0000 &lt;section&gt;\u0000 \u0000 \u0000 &lt;p&gt;Respiration shapes brain activity and synchronizes sensory and exploratory motor actions, with some evidence suggesting that it also affects pupil size. However, evidence for a coupling between respiration and pupil size remains scarce and inconclusive, hindered by small sample sizes and limited controls. Given the importance of pupil size in visual perception and as a reflection of brain state, understanding its relationship with respiration is essential. In five experiments using a pre-registered protocol, we systematically investigated how respiratory phase affects pupil size across different conditions. In Experiment 1 (&lt;i&gt;n = &lt;/i&gt;50), we examined nasal and oral breathing at rest under dim lighting with nearby fixation points, then replicated these results under identical conditions in Experiment 2 (&lt;i&gt;n = &lt;/i&gt;53). Experiment 3 (&lt;i&gt;n = &lt;/i&gt;112) extended this to active visual tasks, while Experiment 4 (&lt;i&gt;n =&lt;/i&gt; 57) extended this to controlled breathing at different paces under ambient lighting with distant fixation. Finally, in Experiment 5 (&lt;i&gt;n =&lt;/i&gt; 34), individuals with isolated congenital anosmia (born without olfactory bulbs) were used as a lesion-type model during visual–auditory tasks to assess whether the respiratory–pupil link depends on olfactory bulb-driven oscillations.&lt;/p&gt;\u0000 \u0000 &lt;div&gt;Across all conditions – free and controlled breathing; different tasks, lighting and fixation distances; and with and without olfactory bulbs – we consistently found that pupil size is smallest around inhalation onset and largest during exhalation. We term this effect the pupillary respiratory-phase response, the fourth known mechanism influencing pupil size, alongside the pupillary light, near fixation and psychosensory responses.\u0000\u0000 &lt;figure&gt;\u0000 &lt;div&gt;&lt;picture&gt;\u0000 &lt;source&gt;&lt;/source&gt;&lt;/picture&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;\u0000 &lt;/div&gt;\u0000 &lt;/figure&gt;\u0000 &lt;/div&gt;\u0000 &lt;/section&gt;\u0000 \u0000 &lt;section&gt;\u0000 \u0000 &lt;h3&gt; Key points&lt;/h3&gt;\u0000 \u0000 &lt;div&gt;\u0000 &lt;ul&gt;\u0000 \u0000 &lt;li&gt;The influence of respiration on pupil size dynamics has long been debated.&lt;/li&gt;\u0000 \u0000 &lt;li&gt;In this study, we systematically investigated how pupil size changes across the breathing cycle through a series of five experiments, while varying tasks, lighting, fixation distance and brain region involvement.&lt;/li&gt;\u0000 \u0000 &lt;li&gt;We show that pupil size is smallest around inhalation onset and largest during exhalation, with pupil dilatation occurring through most of inhalation and the early phase of exhalation, and pupil constriction occurring primarily during the latter part of exhalation.&lt;/li&gt;\u0000 \u0000 ","PeriodicalId":50088,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Physiology-London","volume":"603 6","pages":"1607-1625"},"PeriodicalIF":4.7,"publicationDate":"2025-02-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1113/JP287205","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143469811","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Habituation of vestibular-evoked balance responses after repeated exposure to a postural threat","authors":"Martin Zaback,&nbsp;Solenne Villemer,&nbsp;Kyle J. Missen,&nbsp;J. Timothy Inglis,&nbsp;Mark G. Carpenter","doi":"10.1113/JP287391","DOIUrl":"10.1113/JP287391","url":null,"abstract":"&lt;div&gt;\u0000 \u0000 &lt;section&gt;\u0000 \u0000 \u0000 &lt;div&gt;Vestibular-evoked balance responses are facilitated when faced with threats to stability. However, the extent to which these sensorimotor adaptations covary with changes in emotional and autonomic state remains unclear. This study repeatedly exposed individuals to the same postural threat while vestibular-motor responses were probed using stochastic vestibular stimulation (SVS; 2–25 Hz). This allowed emotional and autonomic state to be manipulated within the same threat environment to determine if vestibular-evoked balance responses are coupled with the emotional/autonomic changes induced by the threat or are facilitated in a strictly context-dependent manner. Twenty-three young adults stood with their head turned 90° while receiving SVS at LOW (0.8 m above ground, away from edge) and HIGH (3.2 m above ground, at edge) conditions. LOW trials were completed before and after a block of 10 HIGH trials. Ground reaction forces (GRFs) and plantar flexor (soleus and medial gastrocnemius (MG)) EMG were recorded. Vestibular-evoked responses recorded from GRFs and EMG were quantified in terms of signal coupling (coherence and cumulant density) and gain, and emotional and autonomic state were assessed from self-reports and electrodermal activity. Vestibular-evoked balance responses were facilitated with initial threat exposure. After repeated exposure, there was significant habituation of the emotional response to threat, which was accompanied by reductions in vestibular-evoked balance responses, most notably for GRFs and MG-EMG. This suggests that threat-related changes in vestibular-motor function are tightly coupled with the emotional and autonomic changes induced by the threat, and not an invariant response to context-specific features of the threat.\u0000\u0000 &lt;figure&gt;\u0000 &lt;div&gt;&lt;picture&gt;\u0000 &lt;source&gt;&lt;/source&gt;&lt;/picture&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;\u0000 &lt;/div&gt;\u0000 &lt;/figure&gt;\u0000 &lt;/div&gt;\u0000 &lt;/section&gt;\u0000 \u0000 &lt;section&gt;\u0000 \u0000 &lt;h3&gt; Key points&lt;/h3&gt;\u0000 \u0000 &lt;div&gt;\u0000 &lt;ul&gt;\u0000 \u0000 &lt;li&gt;Balance corrective responses mediated through vestibular-motor pathways are facilitated when stability is threatened; however, the extent to which these sensorimotor adaptations covary with changes in emotional state remains unclear.&lt;/li&gt;\u0000 \u0000 &lt;li&gt;By having young adults repeatedly stand at the edge of an elevated surface, this study examined how vestibular-evoked balance responses, probed using stochastic vestibular stimulation and recorded from ground reaction forces and plantar flexor EMG, changed alongside estimates of emotional state.&lt;/li&gt;\u0000 \u0000 &lt;li&gt;Vestibular-evoked responses were facilitated when individuals were firs","PeriodicalId":50088,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Physiology-London","volume":"603 6","pages":"1567-1587"},"PeriodicalIF":4.7,"publicationDate":"2025-02-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1113/JP287391","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143469805","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}