Abstract
Highly stable fluctuations of arterial pressure are seen when rhythmic changes of heart rate and arterial blood pressure (measured indirectly by the non-invasive technique of photoplethysmography in the earlobe made hyperemic) are continuously measured during progressive relaxation of healthy subjects. Associated with physical and mental relaxation, the aperiodic rhythmic fluctuations of arterial pressure become entrained into a characteristic mode (frequency ca. 0.15Hz) in 27 out of 28 subjects lying comfortably. This rhythm could be clearly distinguished from respiratory sinus arrhythmia and respiratory blood pressure waves (ca. 0.25Hz) as well as from slower waves reflecting sympathetic activity (below 0.1Hz). This rhythm, further stabilized during early sleep, was regularly abolished by physical activity, standing, and exposure to various stimuli. The rhythm, also known to occur in postganglionic sympathetic muscle nerve activity, is discussed as a macroscopic projection of a synergetic process taking place in a cooperative mechanical system (the Windkessel vessels) exchanging information via afferent, central and efferent neuronal systems within the CNS. In generalizing the principle of the coherence of mesoscopic subsystems, we postulate that many systems (heart, arteries and various types of arterioles, afferent neurons, variable neuronal circuitry, interneurons and efferent neurons) get into progressive coherence due to mutual enslaving producing synergetic cooperativity. The energetic and informational aspects of progressive coherence during the reduction of central and cardiovascular drive (as control parameters) and of progressively active enslaving mechanisms (information compression) are discussed. A phenomenological model for a large synergetic system (“WKS-CNS ensemble”) is presented as the site of generation of stable synergetic order under the conditions of decreasing physical and mental activity.
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Schmid-Schönbein, H., Ziege, S. (1991). The High Pressure System of the Mammalian Circulation as a Dynamic Self-Organizing System. In: Haken, H., Koepchen, H.P. (eds) Rhythms in Physiological Systems. Springer Series in Synergetics, vol 55. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-76877-4_6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-76877-4_6
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