Inconsistent relation of nonlinear heart rate variability indices to increasing vagal tone in healthy humans

Prior work has found that linear heart rate variability (HRV) indices do not accurately reflect cardiac vagal control, and nonlinear indices of HRV have been proposed as alternative tools that may better capture cardiac vagal effects. We used progressive low dose atropine to induce changes in cardiac vagal tone to test the hypotheses that nonlinear HRV indices accurately reflect cardiac vagal control, and that their changes in response to low dose atropine correlate with those in RR interval.
Source: Autonomic Neuroscience: Basic and Clinical - Category: Neuroscience Authors: Source Type: research