Brain And Heart Dynamics

This ambitious and comprehensive handbook represents an essential contribution to our current understanding of interactions between heart and brain, a research topic generating growing interest. Despite the increasing awareness that neural mechanisms are the primary cause of cardiac disease and its progression, therapy continues to focus on end-organ protection and does not approach the neural core of the problem. Growing public health problems such as heart failure are still treated with autonomic drugs that are 30-40 years old and simply act on cardiac receptors. However, it has now been shown that the progression of ischemic heart disease to heart failure is mainly due to abnormal central responses to incipient cardiac disease, with neural activation the primary cause rather than the consequence of cardiac remodeling. Written by leading international experts in their respective research areas, the book presents a variety of perspectives on the core topic: from social and philosophical to gender-related aspects. It is designed for a broad readership and includes dedicated sections for cardiologists, psychiatrists, neurologists and psychotherapists looking for a more insightful and targeted approach to neuro-cardiovascular disease.

This monograph offers a cross-system exchange and cross-modality investigation into brain-heart interplay. Brain-Heart Interplay (BHI) is a highly interdisciplinary scientific topic, which spreads from the physiology of the Central/Autonomous Nervous Systems, especially Central Autonomic Network, to advanced signal processing and modeling for its activity quantification. Motivated by clinical evidence and supported by recent findings in neurophysiology, this monograph first explores the definition of basic Brain-Heart Interplay quantifiers, and then moves onto advanced methods for the assessment of health and disease states. Non-invasive use of brain monitoring techniques, including electroencephalogram and function Magnetic Resonance Imaging, will be described together with heartbeat dynamics monitoring through pulseoximeter and ECG signals. The audience of this book comprises especially of biomedical engineers and medical doctors with expertise in statistics and/or signal processing. Researchers in the fields of cardiology, neurology, psychiatry, and neuroscience in general may be interested as well.

Nonlinear dynamics has become an important field of research in recent years in many areas of the natural sciences. In particular, it has potential applications in biology and medicine; nonlinear data analysis has helped to detect the progress of cardiac disease, physiological disorders, for example episodes of epilepsy, and others. This book focuses on the current trends of research concerning the prediction of sudden cardiac death and the onset of epileptic seizures, using the nonlinear analysis based on ECG and EEG data. Topics covered include the analysis of cardiac models and neural models. The book is a collection of recent research papers by leading physicists, mathematicians, cardiologists and neurobiologists who are actively involved in using the concepts of nonlinear dynamics to explore the functional behaviours of heart and brain under normal and pathological conditions. This collection is intended for students in physics, mathematics and medical sciences, and researchers in interdisciplinary areas of physics and biology.

There are physiological bases for associations of the heart with emotions, and with the apparently universal increased mortality in winter. Thirteen contributions integrate expertise in cardiology and neuroscience in overviewing the latest knowledge about head-heart interactions. The first five chapters explain autonomic control of cardiovascular functions, the neural supply of the heart, and neuropathology. Part II examines the effects of stress on the hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal system and the heart. Part III treats the neurobiology and neuroimaging of cardiac pain. Next, humoral factors in cardiovascular regulation and as mediators of inflammation in coronary artery disease are considered. Finally, the relationship between heart disease and cognitive/neuropsychiatric disorders is discussed. Includes photomicrographs, schematic drawings, and nice large print.

This book discusses the underlying mechanisms connecting the brain and heart. The physiology of the brain is such that it is easily affected by any altered physiology of other systems, which in turn may compromise cerebral blood flow and oxygenation. Together, the brain and heart control our body systems, allowing them to function automatically. This interaction between the brain and other systems makes it important for us to understand how any kind of injury to the brain can produce complications in remote organs or systems, such as the heart. The central nervous system is responsible for vegetative function and is central to homeostasis. Further, central nervous system responses are linked to the ongoing function of other organ systems e.g. feeding, thermoregulation, reproduction and muscle activity. It is therefore logical that neural control of the cardiovascular system must also interact with the neural control of other organ systems. This book explains in detail stressed cardiac conditions, discussing the pathophysiology and proposed treatment, and also describing lesser-known crosstalks between the acutely or chronically affected brain and heart.

Proceedings of a NATO ASI held in Irsee/Kaufbeuren, Germany, June 15--26, 1990

Gert Ter Horst and a panel of recognized experts illuminate the complexities and importance of heart-brain and brain-heart interactions in human health. These distinguished authorities critically review what is known about autonomic control of the heart, hypothalamo-pituitary- adrenal modulation, heart pain, modulation by humoral factors, and the relationship between cognitive/neuropsychiatric disorders and heart disease. Highly relevant and up-to-date, The Nervous System and the Heart offers the first comprehensive treatment of the important mutual interactions of the heart and the brain. By integrating specialist knowledge in cardiology with that from neuroscience, this important book constitutes a brilliant guide to today's novel approaches to neural control of the heart and consequent reduction of cardiovascular mortality.

foreword by Hermann Haken For the past twenty years Scott Kelso's research has focused on extending the physical concepts of self- organization and the mathematical tools of nonlinear dynamics to understand how human beings (and human brains) perceive, intend, learn, control, and coordinate complex behaviors. In this book Kelso proposes a new, general framework within which to connect brain, mind, and behavior.Kelso's prescription for mental life breaks dramatically with the classical computational approach that is still the operative framework for many newer psychological and neurophysiological studies. His core thesis is that the creation and evolution of patterned behavior at all levels--from neurons to mind--is governed by the generic processes of self-organization. Both human brain and behavior are shown to exhibit features of pattern-forming dynamical systems, including multistability, abrupt phase transitions, crises, and intermittency. Dynamic Patterns brings together different aspects of this approach to the study of human behavior, using simple experimental examples and illustrations to convey essential concepts, strategies, and methods, with a minimum of mathematics. Kelso begins with a general account of dynamic pattern formation. He then takes up behavior, focusing initially on identifying pattern-forming instabilities in human sensorimotor coordination. Moving back and forth between theory and experiment, he establishes the notion that the same pattern-forming mechanisms apply regardless of the component parts involved (parts of the body, parts of the nervous system, parts of society) and the medium through which the parts are coupled. Finally, employing the latest techniques to observe spatiotemporal patterns of brain activity, Kelso shows that the human brain is fundamentally a pattern forming dynamical system, poised on the brink of instability. Self-organization thus underlies the cooperative action of neurons that produces human behavior in all its forms.