Why the study?
Does blood lactate influence brainstem excitability in sprinters?
Does blood lactate influence brainstem excitability in sprinters?
Blood lactate appears to influence the blink reflex mainly by acting at the cortical level rather than the brainstem.
Lactate may modulate cortical rather than brainstem excitability in sprinters; leaves open clinical relevance and requires prospective confirmation.
The influence of blood lactate on brainstem excitability was tested by using the blink reflex (BR) recovery cycle on 18 sprinters. Blood lactate was measured before maximal cycling, at the end, as well as 5 and 10 min after the exhaustion. Blood lactate was associated with a decrement of R2 whereas only small changes were observed after an intravenous infusion of lactate. It seems, therefore, that lactate influences BR mainly by acting at the cortical level.
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Coco et al. (2013) studied this question.
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