Autonomic Regulation During Acute Mental Stress Is Characterized by Dynamic Interactions

Research output: Contribution to book/Conference proceedings/Anthology/ReportConference contributionContributedpeer-review

Abstract

The human organism can be understood as a complex system of dynamic interactions regulating physiological functions to maintain a state of homeostasis. Acute mental stress disrupts homeostasis and triggers a cardiovascular response controlled by the autonomic nervous system. We investigated the effects of acute mental stress on dynamic interactions between 20 vital parameters of haemodynamics, heart rate variability, QT variability, respiration, and skin conductance in 35 healthy subjects. To characterize dynamic interactions, we calculated symbolic transfer entropy between all vital parameters during baseline and acute mental stress. Significant changes were found in the dynamic interactions for 206 of 400 parameter combinations between baseline and acute mental stress (p < 0.05, Bonferoni-Holm corrected). Overall, dynamic interactions increased significantly by 9.3 % (p < 0.001) compared to baseline. Specifically, acute mental stress caused a 22 % increase of interactions between vital parameters that are dominated by sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system. Our results indicate that acute mental stress leads to increased autonomic regulation. The characterization of dynamic interactions during acute mental stress provides insights for a better understanding of autonomic regulation processes.

Details

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationComputing in Cardiology, CinC 2023
PublisherIEEE
Number of pages4
ISBN (electronic)979-8-3503-8252-5
Publication statusPublished - 26 Dec 2023
Peer-reviewedYes

Publication series

SeriesComputing in Cardiology
Volume50
ISSN2325-887X

External IDs

Scopus 85182339079
ORCID /0000-0003-4012-0608/work/165451917
ORCID /0000-0003-2214-6505/work/165454584
ORCID /0000-0003-0095-8051/work/176862287