Luís A. Nunes Amaral

Professor of Engineering Sciences and Applied Mathematics
Professor of Medicine (by courtesy)
Professor of Molecular Biosciences (by courtesy)
Professor of Physics & Astronomy (by courtesy)

Engineering Sciences and Applied Mathematics
2145 Sheridan Road (Room M426)
Evanston, IL 60208, US
Phone: +1 847-491-7850

Modeling heart rate variability by stochastic feedback

Amaral LAN, Goldberger AL, Ivanov PC, Stanley HE
Comput. Phys. Commun. 121, 126-128 (1999)
Times cited: 12

Abstract

We consider the question of how the cardiac rhythm spontaneously self-regulates and propose a new mechanism as a possible answer. We model the neuroautonomic regulation of the heart rate as a stochastic feedback system and find that the model successfully accounts for key characteristics of cardiac variability, including the 1/f power spectrum, the functional form and scaling of the distribution of variations of the interbeat intervals, and the correlations in the Fourier phases which indicate nonlinear dynamics.