Gee2023 - Central and intrinsic cardiac circuits

Model Context: Model of neural control of cardiovascular behavior and its interaction with respiratory behavior

Primary goal of the model: The primary objective of the modeling study was to evaluate the role of neural signals in controlling the dynamic behavior of the heart, particularly in regulating cardiovascular metrics such as heart rate and blood pressure. We also seek to understand neural control of respiratory sinus arrhythmia, a natural acceleration and deceleration of heart rate in synchronization with respiration, which is characteristic of good cardiovascular health.
Our model builds on a previously developed model of neural control of the heart.1 We extended this model by integrating the “little brain of the heart”, the intrinsic cardiac nervous system (ICN), to study its contributions to cardiovascular control. This newly developed model with the ICN also integrates modeling of the cardiac phase-dependent effect of parasympathetic activity on heart rate deceleration and gating of signals in the brainstem in based on respiratory phase to represent a possible mechanism of respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA). Our expanded model can be utilized to explore the role of the ICN on beat-to-beat cardiovascular behavior, specifically RSA. Simulations can be performed to explore regulation of cardiovascular behavior in response to changes in lung tidal volume and electrical stimulation of the vagus nerve, which connects the brain and the heart.