Title | Reduced Heartbeat-Evoked Responses in a Near-Death Case Report. | ||
Author | Candia-Rivera, Diego; Machado, Calixto | ||
Journal | J Clin Neurol | Publication Year/Month | 2023-Nov |
PMID | 37455508 | PMCID | PMC10622722 |
Affiliation + expend | 1.Paris Brain Institute (ICM), Sorbonne University, Paris, France. diego.candia.r@ug.uchile.cl. |
BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Whether brain-heart communication continues under ventricular fibrillation (VF) remains to be determined. There is weak evidence of physiological changes in cortical activity under VF. Moreover, brain-heart communication has not previously been studied in this condition. We aimed to measure parallel changes in heart-rate variability (HRV), cortical activity, and brain-heart interactions in a patient who experienced VF. METHODS: The EEG and EKG signals for the case report were acquired for approximately 20 h. We selected different 1-min-long segments based on the changes in the EKG waveform. We present the changes in heartbeat-evoked responses (HERs), HRV, and EEG power for each selected segment. RESULTS: The overall physiological activity appeared to deteriorate as VF proceeded. Brain-heart interactions measured using HERs disappeared, with a few aberrant amplitudes appearing occasionally. The parallel changes in EEG and HRV were not pronounced, suggesting the absence of bidirectional neural control. CONCLUSIONS: Our measurements of brain-heart interactions suggested that the evolving VF impairs communication between the central and autonomic nervous systems. These results may support that reduced brain-heart interactions reflect loss of consciousness and deterioration in the overall health state.