Abstract:
“Think from your heart!” has always been considered a non-scientific statement which is frowned up on in a scientific community. Hence, most of the neuropsychiatric researches aim at exploring brain mechanisms for the emotional regulation and disorders originating from their dysregulation. From stress and depression to metabolic complications arising from them, we have now developed some understanding of the brain mechanisms, yet the complex heart-brain communication remains a mystery. Heart-rate variability (HRV) is a measure of beat to beat changes occurring over short periods in response to changing situations. It is categorized in to time domain and frequency domain measures, both reflecting the function of vagal stimulation and reflex action through their distinct parameters. HRV is emerging as a more accurate measure of stress and cardiac function in the body. Through HRV time domain measures, vagal tone can be assessed while frequency domain measures reflect baroreceptor reflex activity. The measures of entropy can also be evaluated from HRV measures which reflects overall cardiac health. The measures of HRV are a reflection of the function of Intrinsic Cardiac Ganglia (ICNs), which is involved in a two-way communication between heart and brain. Therefore, some activity in the brain is also evoked by heart specially during emotional arousals. These potentials can be extracted in the form of heart-beat evoked potentials through electroencephalography. Understanding of the HRV and HEP therefore hold a potential to be developed as a tool to study emotional and psychological disorders.
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Journal: Abstract Book on 9th Annual Neuroscience Conference (ANC-23) August 12-13, 2023 , Volume: 0, Issue: 0, Year: 2023