Surface electromyography reveals males have a slower patellar reflex than females

In humans the cross sectional area of spinal motor neurons at L3 is larger in males than in females. Since these contribute to the control of the quadriceps femoris muscle group and are involved in the patellar reflex (PR), gender differences in the PR are expected. We have investigated this possibility using a group of 28 young subjects (14 male and 14 female) aged 20-22 years. The PR was quantified by the muscle compound action potential (MCAP) from the surface electromyogram (sEMG) of the vastus lateralis muscle. We found that the PR latency in females (17 ± 0.19 ms), was significantly (p < 0.001) faster than in males (21 ± 0.37 ms). This 4 ms difference in latency could not be ascribed to differences in stature or thigh length. In conclusion, for the age range tested females posses a significantly faster patellar reflex than males. We suggest that the slower PR latency of male subjects may arise in part from their larger α-motorneurons: such that longer integration times are required for the summation of postsynaptic excitation to be sufficient to excite α-motorneurons.