Amanda Griffits is set to explain, in 60,000 words for her PhD, why women play the air guitar differently than men - and why they are not as interested in the noble artistic display.

The study is to take three years and with the title of the paper as - "Air guitar: celebrating the fakeness of the inauthentic" - you can bet the final outcome will be a breath of fresh (guitar) air.

The Daily Telegraph says Britain created the first world record for an air guitar ensemble when more than 4,000 people flailed along to Sweet Child o' Mine by the heavy metal band Guns 'n' Roses at the Guildford Festival in Surrey last month.

But Miss Griffiths's interest grew after she entered a regional air guitar competition on the eve of her 30th birthday two years ago.

Her unusual PhD was suggested by Prof Sheila Whiteley, chair of pop music at the University of Salford, whom she met on Radio 4's Woman's Hour, who has also overseen PhD studies into "post-anarcho punk" and heavy metal music.