Interactions between autonomic cardiovascular regulation and cortical activity: a CNV study.
The study investigated interactions between autonomic cardiovascular regulation and cortical activity. In 54 healthy subjects, baroreflex sensitivity (BRS) and respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) were assessed at resting conditions. As an EEG indicator of cortical excitability, the contingent negative variation (CNV) was induced using a constant foreperiod reaction time task. At bivariate level, only RSA showed a moderate positive correlation with the CNV recorded at frontal electrodes. However, when common variance of BRS and RSA was controlled for in multiple regression analysis, an inverse association between BRS and the frontal CNV also arose. The inverse association between BRS and the CNV is discussed as reflecting bottom-up modulation of cortical excitability by baroreceptor afferents. The positive correlation between RSA and the CNV may relate to the interplay between prefrontal processing and cardiac vagal tone.
UMIT-University for Health Sciences, Medical Informatics and Technology, Hall in Tirol, Austria. stefan.duschek@umit.at
Stefan
S
Duschek
Jana
J
Wörsching
Gustavo A
GA
Reyes del Paso
D001146:Arrhythmia, Sinus / Q000503:physiopathology; D001341:Autonomic Nervous System / Q000502:physiology*; D017704:Baroreflex / Q000502:physiology; D001794:Blood Pressure / Q000502:physiology; D002320:Cardiovascular Physiological Phenomena; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D003265:Contingent Negative Variation / Q000502:physiology*; D003627:Data Interpretation, Statistical; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D014630:Vagus Nerve / Q000502:physiology; D055815:Young Adult