title: Modeling heart rate variability by stochastic feedback.
abstract: We consider the question of how the cardiac rhythm spontaneously self-regulates and propose a new mechanism as a possible answer. We model the neuroautonomic regulation of the heart rate as a stochastic feedback system and find that the model successfully accounts for key characteristics of cardiac variability, including the 1/f power spectrum, the functional form and scaling of the distribution of variations of the interbeat intervals, and the correlations in the Fourier phases which indicate nonlinear dynamics.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge 02139, USA. http://polymer.bu.edu/amaral
authors.forename: L A
authors.initials: LA
authors.lastname: Amaral
authors.forename: A L
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Goldberger
authors.lastname: Ivanov PCh
authors.forename: H E
authors.initials: HE
authors.lastname: Stanley
mesh_terms: D006321:Heart / Q000294:innervation; D006339:Heart Rate / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008955:Models, Cardiovascular; D017711:Nonlinear Dynamics; D010275:Parasympathetic Nervous System / Q000502:physiology; D012849:Sinoatrial Node / Q000502:physiology; D013269:Stochastic Processes; D013564:Sympathetic Nervous System / Q000502:physiology