{"id":100434,"date":"2025-04-02T16:39:59","date_gmt":"2025-04-02T20:39:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/?p=100434"},"modified":"2025-04-03T16:49:05","modified_gmt":"2025-04-03T20:49:05","slug":"when-the-brain-talked-this-award-winning-prof-listened","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/2025\/04\/when-the-brain-talked-this-award-winning-prof-listened\/","title":{"rendered":"When the brain talked, this award-winning prof listened"},"content":{"rendered":"

Stephen Klassen (BSc \u201913, MSc \u201915) was astounded when he first heard the sound of the brain talking to blood vessels.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like if you\u2019re in a tent, and it previously rained, and a few droplets fall off a tree onto your tent in quick succession \u2014 that\u2019s how I can best describe the sound that neurons that control blood vessels make when they fire,\u201d says the Assistant Professor of Kinesiology. \u201cIt captivated me.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the time, Klassen was a PhD student measuring electrical currents travelling from the brain to neurons, nerve cells that transmit messages throughout the body, in the body\u2019s sympathetic nervous system (SNS).<\/p>\n

The SNS regulates heart rate, blood pressure and blood flow \u2014 commonly known as \u201cfight or flight\u201d responses \u2014 during rest and in times of stress.<\/p>\n

Now, Klassen is an expert on how the brain communicates with a large network of blood vessels that regulate blood pressure and blood flow in humans. His many accomplishments in this area have earned him Brock University\u2019s 2025 Award for Early Career Research and Creative Activity<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cDr. Klassen has significantly advanced understandings about sympathetic neural control of the human cardiovascular system,\u201d says Acting Vice-President, Research Michelle McGinn. \u201cThe new findings developed through his research have important implications for understanding hypertension and developing novel treatments to lower cardiovascular risk.\u201d<\/p>\n

Klassen\u2019s research aims to discover the processes enabling the SNS to regulate blood pressure and blood flow; understand how age-related failures in the SNS lead to high blood pressure and cardiovascular diseases; and study how exercise maintains brain and heart health.<\/p>\n

A key finding in Klassen\u2019s work is in the area of SNS \u201caction potentials.\u201d An action potential is a rapid rise and subsequent fall of electrical currents in the membranes of neurons. The currents, which travel from the brain through neurons to the cell, play a central role in cell-to-cell communication.<\/p>\n

It was long thought that SNS neurons talked to blood vessels only by using bursts of a few action potentials firing at about the same time.<\/p>\n

\u201cResearchers assumed there was silence between bursts of action potentials,\u201d says Klassen. \u201cWe thought, maybe that doesn’t capture the whole language that the brain uses to speak to the blood vessels.\u201d<\/p>\n

When he and his team took a closer look, Klassen says they found there was \u201ca lot of communication happening between these bursts.\u201d<\/p>\n

The researchers published their discovery in a first-of-its-kind study<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Klassen and his team have made breakthroughs in several other areas, including:<\/p>\n