Vagal regulation during bottle feeding in low-birthweight neonates: support for the gustatory-vagal hypothesis.
The gustatory-vagal hypothesis proposes that gustatory stimulation elicits a coordinated vagal response manifested as an increase in ingestive behaviors (e.g., sucking) and a decrease in nucleus ambiguus vagal tone measured by decreases in the amplitude of respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA). The current study tested the gustatory-vagal hypothesis in a bottle feeding paradigm with 29 clinically stable, high-risk, low-birthweight neonates. The amplitude of respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) was collected before, during, and after bottle feeding. Consistent with the gustatory-vagal hypothesis, RSA decreased during bottle feeding. In a longitudinal subsample of subjects, the pattern of RSA changes during the feeding paradigm was stable across two test sessions.
Portales
A L
AL
Institute for Child Study, University of Maryland College Park 20742, USA.
Porges
S W
SW
Doussard-Roosevelt
J A
JA
Abedin
M
M
Lopez
R
R
Young
M A
MA
Beeram
M R
MR
Baker
M
M
D004562:Electrocardiography; D005247:Feeding Behavior; D006339:Heart Rate; D006801:Humans; D007230:Infant, Low Birth Weight; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D013649:Taste / Q000502:physiology*; D014630:Vagus Nerve / Q000502:physiology*