Author: Adrienne Kania1, Jumana Roufail1,2, Joseph Prokop1,2, Harald M Stauss2
Affiliation: <sup>1</sup> Department of Clinical Medicine, Burrell College of Osteopathic Medicine, Las Cruces, New Mexico, USA.
<sup>2</sup> Department of Biomedical Sciences, Burrell College of Osteopathic Medicine, Las Cruces, New Mexico, USA.
Conference/Journal: Physiol Rep
Date published: 2024 Mar 1
Other:
Volume ID: 12 , Issue ID: 6 , Pages: e15981 , Special Notes: doi: 10.14814/phy2.15981. , Word Count: 197
Reports on autonomic responses to transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation (taVNS) and osteopathic manipulative techniques have been equivocal, partly due to inconsistent interpretation of heart rate variability (HRV). We developed a mechanistic framework for the interpretation of HRV based on a model of sinus node automaticity that considers autonomic effects on Phase 3 repolarization and Phase 4 depolarization of the sinoatrial action potential. The model was applied to HRV parameters calculated from ECG recordings (healthy adult humans, both genders) before (30 min), during (15 min), and after (30 min) a time control intervention (rest, n = 23), taVNS (10 Hz, 300 μs, 1-2 mA, cymba concha, left ear, n = 12), or occipitoatlantal decompression (OA-D, n = 14). The experimental protocol was repeated on 3 consecutive days. The model simulation revealed that low frequency (LF) HRV best predicts sympathetic tone when calculated from heart rate time series, while high frequency (HF) HRV best predicts parasympathetic tone when calculated from heart period time series. Applying our model to the HRV responses to taVNS and OA-D, revealed that taVNS increases cardiac parasympathetic tone, while OA-D elicits a mild decrease in cardiac sympathetic tone.
Keywords: cardiac parasympathetic tone; cardiac sympathetic tone; frequency‐domain heart rate variability; time‐domain heart rate variability.
PMID: 38508860 DOI: 10.14814/phy2.15981