Published data and our own results suggest that the amplitude of periodic modulations of heart rate are associated with the level of activation of the cerebral cortex. This suggestion was tested by seeking correlational relationships between heart rate periodograms (a measure of the amplitude of periodic modulations of the heart rate at different frequencies) and electroencephalographic assessment of levels of activation of different areas of the cortex. The results provided evidence of a positive relationship between the amplitude of heart rate modulations with a period of about three oscillations per heart rate interval and the level of activation of the frontal cortex.
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Translated from Rossiiskii Fiziologicheskii Zhurnal imeni I. M. Sechenova, Vol. 97, No. 11, pp. 1281–1288, November, 2011.
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Mukhin, V.N., Yakovlev, N.M. & Klimenko, V.M. An Association between Heart Rate Variability and Levels of Frontal Cortex Activation. Neurosci Behav Physi 43, 755–759 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11055-013-9805-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11055-013-9805-1