Abstract
Heart rate is looked upon in psychophysiology as one of the easily obtainable tale-bearers of the autonomic system’s condition. For most autonomic efference the final common pathway originates in the medulla oblongata; this region of the CNS is held responsible for the tonic activities of the sympathetic and parasympathetic system and their interplay (Koizumi and Brooks, 1980). However, the medulla is not “the” autonomic center by itself; it takes part in the complex interaction between different regions in the CNS where somatic and autonomic functions are tuned in response to environmental stimuli. Not only do we find in the medulla the motor neurons of the vagus nerve, controlling such functions as heart rate and activity of the upper intestinal tract, it also contains the centers for the automatic control of respiration.
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© 1986 Plenum Press, New York
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Karemaker, J.M. (1986). Relations between Changes in Cardiac Parasympathetic Activity and Heart Rate Variability. In: Grossman, P., Janssen, K.H.L., Vaitl, D. (eds) Cardiorespiratory and Cardiosomatic Psychophysiology. NATO ASI Series, vol 114. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-0360-3_4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-0360-3_4
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