Paul Ansdell

The first of a few very cool papers to come from @padraig-spillane.bsky.social’s PhD.

Spike-timing-dependent plasticity is evident across the menstrual cycle, but potentiated in the luteal phase 🧠

Sex differences in durability following heavy intensity cycling exercise in trained athletes The ability to withstand impairments in key physiological variables during prolonged exercise, known as durability, is emerging as an important factor in cycling performance. While females possess phy...

The preprint of our latest sex differences research is now online:

“Sex differences in durability following heavy intensity cycling exercise in trained athletes”

The result of a very fun collaboration between research groups with similar interests! 🇮🇹🇬🇧

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Abstract from a paper titled “Lessons learned from a no-cost menstrual cycle tracking intervention in field hockey: a mixed-methods study”

We get some outstanding project students in our department.

Exhibit A was Lorna Crawford, who led this paper on menstrual cycle tracking in elite, yet non-professional athletes as part of her MSc degree.

Message for the PDF if you can’t access!

journals.humankinetics.com/view/journal...

Had a brilliant week at @ecssofficial.bsky.social. Four talks from our group about our latest work 🧠🚴‍♀️💪

Also great to catch up with friends and colleagues from all over. Already looking forward to next year🇨🇭

@padraig-spillane.bsky.social @elisanedelec.bsky.social
@nuneurofunc.bsky.social

First up from our group at @northumbriauni.bsky.social is Elisa Pastorio discussing Sex differences in durability during cycling exercise at @ecssofficial.bsky.social in Rimini, Italy 🇮🇹

Excited to have presented some early data from our wider collaborative project @ecssofficial.bsky.social More to come! @nuneurofunc.bsky.social @northumbriauni.bsky.social

The UK Sensorimotor Conference is always one of my favourites, and this year in Oxford was particularly enjoyable.

Presenting our group’s work on reaction time, movement speed and accuracy changes across the menstrual cycle 🧠

Chronic resistance and endurance training alters the way in which motor unit discharge rates are modulated across contraction intensities, suggesting alterations in net excitatory synaptic input - another fun collaboration with @jskarabot.bsky.social and colleagues.

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Come and join us - permanent Research Fellow position available from Assistant to Full Professor.

Anyone interested in neuromuscular physiology or women’s health feel free to message me!

work4.northumbria.ac.uk#en/sites/CX_...

Now published in AJP 🎉

journals.physiology.org/doi/abs/10.1...

This is genuinely by far the most cardiovascular exercise I’ve ever seen that man do.

Had a great time at the Women's Nutrition and Physiology symposium at @ljmuofficial.bsky.social today. Some fascinating talks and discussions througout the day. I also enjoyed presenting a poster of some data from my first PhD study on neurophysiology across the menstrual cycle

Seven (.65) Seconds Away: The Possibility and Physiology of a Women’s Sub-4 Minute Mile | Journal of Applied Physiology | American Physiological Society

This is probably doable. journals.physiology.org/doi/abs/10.1...

Research Associate in Neurophysiology of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis at Loughborough University Apply now for the Research Associate in Neurophysiology of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis role on jobs.ac.uk - the leading job board for higher education jobs. View details.

Exciting two-year postdoc position available in neuromuscular physiology!

www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DML152/r...

A spotlight on our women’s health research Women are two and a half times more likely to get MS than men. And it has different implications for women. Yet historically, women’s health wasn’t the focus of much MS research. So there’s lots we st...

www.mssociety.org.uk/research/lat...

Enjoyed having Dr Emma Cowley and Dr Kelly McNulty present their ‘Invisible Sportswomen’ research at our department seminar today.

I forgot to take a photo, so go and read their latest paper instead!

journals.humankinetics.com/view/journal...

Blue plaque review series: A.V. Hill, athletic records and the birth of exercise physiology Abstract figure legend Depiction of the world running records from 1925 studied by A. V. Hill and those of 2025 up to and including ultradistance events on a semi-logarithmic plot. These records, in ...

A.V. Hill was a hero, a genius, and the most upright person Bernard Katz ever met. He helped bring exercise physiology into being. Here’s our review of that story, published in @jphysiol.bsky.social. physoc.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

Our latest preprint, using startling acoustic stimuli in combination with neurostimulation to better understand the neural mechanisms of fatigue 🧠

@physoc.bsky.social has a starter pack of physiologists. Hooray!! go.bsky.app/2KU1XD6

Northumbria University is one of four regional universities to receive £6m funding from UKRI's BBSRC to support the next generation of doctoral-level bioscientists.

Find out more or get in touch: www.northumbria.ac.uk/about-us/new...

Female Brain and Endocrinological Research-Veteran (FemBER-Vet) study: A study protocol for identifying endocrinological, lifestyle and psychosocial determinants of brain health outcomes in female veterans for future intervention success

Read the study protocol for our interdisciplinary research into female veteran brain health - more to follow! 🧠

journals.plos.org/plosone/arti...

Two very enjoyable days at #BBEP2024 thank you to the @physoc.bsky.social for putting on a great event!

Here supporting Elisa Pastorio, who presented our collaborative work on sex differences in durability 🚴‍♀️🚴‍♂️

Long COVID research team wins global award Northumbria University academics are part of a research team looking into the effects of Long Covid which has won a global award from Nature.

A recap of some recent work we’ve been involved with, led by @profmarkfaghy.bsky.social and the team at Derby.

www.northumbria.ac.uk/about-us/new...

well I for one can't see this having *any* negative impacts when the next generation of PhD students start getting lectureships. it's a good job teaching is an instinctual skill that requires no experience </facepalm>

Ok, now that we are all here … *please share* this invite to IMRF in our beautiful Durham 2025! Abstracts open in Jan.
imrf2025.sciencesconf.org

@meike-scheller.bsky.social @markonardini.bsky.social

Great points, our data using ischemia for a physiological calibration agrees too. Looking forward to seeing more work in this area!

journals.physiology.org/doi/full/10....

Menstruation Matters Menstruation is part of human life, yet we hide it behind stigma and taboos. In this Focus, our authors discuss why menstruation matters. Tackling significant ...

A really timely series of articles.

“The ethics of menstrual tracking applications” is particularly relevant to our recent experiences implementing this with elite sportswomen and future plans to do so in women with MS.

www.nature.com/collections/...

go.bsky.app/SDz3NC4

Sex differences in the cardiopulmonary and neuromuscular response to high-intensity interval exercise Sex differences exist in the integrative response to exercise, however, these are typically researched during constant-load exercise. Interval exercise involves high-intensity efforts interspersed wit...

Our group’s latest work on sex differences during high-intensity interval exercise 🏃‍♀️🏃‍♂️

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...