There are clear differences between men and women when it comes to how blood flow within their brains respond to stressors.
The incidence of strokes, for example, is much lower in females until they experience menopause. After their hormone level changes, their risk rises. Yet there is little known about why this is the case.
Responding to a gap in research examining these sex differences in brain blood flow (BBF), UW–Madison’s William Schrage was recently awarded a five-year, $3.04 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to investigate the disparities.
Schrage, a professor of exercise physiology with the School of Education’s Department of Kinesiology, explains that the goal of this project is to see if men and women differ when faced with hypoxia, or low oxygen in the blood. If they do differ, the researchers hope to pinpoint where in the brain they differ, and then test two ideas about how brain blood flow may be different by sex, stress type, and brain region.
“We hope to better understand how men and women differ when faced with stressors, as it may have implications for a variety of cerebrovascular-related issues that coincide with changes in sex hormones,” says Schrage, who also is director of the Schrage Lab within the Bruno Balke Biodynamics Laboratory.
This research project uses magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technology at the Wisconsin Institutes for Medical Research (WIMR) Imaging Facility to analyze brain blood flow. The project involves a multidisciplinary team that includes cardiovascular experts in kinesiology, and investigators from both the division of Endocrinology, Diabetes, and Metabolism, and the Department of Medical Physics within the UW School of Medicine and Public Health.
Schrage notes the research aims include multiple lines of inquiry to continue to understand the biologic and physiologic differences between women and men, and the implications of the differences for diagnosis and treatment.
Findings from this work may lead to studies in other conditions like menopause, menstrual migraine, postpartum, polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), and gender reassignment procedures.
The hope, Schrage explains, is that one day doctors will be able to utilize the research findings to better plan for ways to promote brain health in a sex-specific manner as people age.
There are clear differences between men and women when it comes to how blood flow within their brains respond to stressors.
The incidence of strokes, for example, is much lower in females until they experience menopause. After their hormone level changes, their risk rises. Yet there is little known about why this is the case.
Responding to a gap in research examining these sex differences in brain blood flow (BBF), UW–Madison’s William Schrage was recently awarded a five-year, $3.04 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to investigate the disparities.
Schrage, a professor of exercise physiology with the School of Education’s Department of Kinesiology, explains that the goal of this project is to see if men and women differ when faced with hypoxia, or low oxygen in the blood. If they do differ, the researchers hope to pinpoint where in the brain they differ, and then test two ideas about how brain blood flow may be different by sex, stress type, and brain region.
“We hope to better understand how men and women differ when faced with stressors, as it may have implications for a variety of cerebrovascular-related issues that coincide with changes in sex hormones,” says Schrage, who also is director of the Schrage Lab within the Bruno Balke Biodynamics Laboratory.
This research project uses magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technology at the Wisconsin Institutes for Medical Research (WIMR) Imaging Facility to analyze brain blood flow. The project involves a multidisciplinary team that includes cardiovascular experts in kinesiology, and investigators from both the division of Endocrinology, Diabetes, and Metabolism, and the Department of Medical Physics within the UW School of Medicine and Public Health.
Schrage notes the research aims include multiple lines of inquiry to continue to understand the biologic and physiologic differences between women and men, and the implications of the differences for diagnosis and treatment.
Findings from this work may lead to studies in other conditions like menopause, menstrual migraine, postpartum, polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), and gender reassignment procedures.
The hope, Schrage explains, is that one day doctors will be able to utilize the research findings to better plan for ways to promote brain health in a sex-specific manner as people age.