Synchronization in Human Cardiorespiratory System.
Abstract
Synchronization is a universal phenomenon that is observed in many fields of science and widely applied in engineering. The notion of synchronization has been often used in the analysis of physiological (sub)systems, but these studies have been restricted to nearly periodic rhythms. In spite of intensive analysis, no synchronization was found between such complex and nonstationary oscillators as human heart and respiratory system; moreover, it has been generally accepted that they were not synchronized. In contrast to this we now demonstrate the existence of hidden synchronized regimes between the cardiac and the respiratory rhythm. We analyze data registered in noninvasive examinations with a group of young athletes and use the recently introduced notion of phase synchronization of chaotic oscillators to develop a technique for the analysis of irregular nonstationary bivariate data. Using this approach we detect up to 20 minutes long epochs of phase synchronization of different order n:m during the resting state of the subjects. Besides the well known respiratory modulation of heart rate (``respiratory sinus arrhythmia'') this cardiorespiratory synchronization promises to be another important physiological effect. We believe that it can have important implications for the understanding of underlying physiological mechanisms and may lead to clinical applications in the context of autonomic nervous system diseases.
- Publication:
-
APS March Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- March 1998
- Bibcode:
- 1998APS..MAR.Q1205K