Autonomic cardiovascular regulation and cortical tone

This study aimed to investigate interactions between tonic cortical arousal and features of autonomic cardiovascular regulation. In 50 healthy subjects, the power spectrum of the spontaneous EEG was obtained at resting state. Concurrently, respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA), baroreflex sensitivity (BRS) and R-wave to pulse interval (RPI) were recorded as indices of cardiovascular control. At the bivariate level, only a negative correlation between beta power recorded at frontal electrode positions and RPI was found. However, when common variance of BRS and RSA was controlled for in multiple regression analyses, a positive association between alpha power and RSA, and an inverse relationship with BRS, also arose. The findings concerning RPI and RSA are suggestive of a relationship between higher levels of cortical tone and increased sympathetic and reduced vagal cardiac influences. The inverse association between BRS and alpha activity may reflect bottom-up modulation of cortical arousal by baroreceptor afferents.