Jove
Visualize
Contact Us
JoVE
x logofacebook logolinkedin logoyoutube logo
ABOUT JoVE
OverviewLeadershipBlogJoVE Help Center
AUTHORS
Publishing ProcessEditorial BoardScope & PoliciesPeer ReviewFAQSubmit
LIBRARIANS
TestimonialsSubscriptionsAccessResourcesLibrary Advisory BoardFAQ
RESEARCH
JoVE JournalMethods CollectionsJoVE Encyclopedia of ExperimentsArchive
EDUCATION
JoVE CoreJoVE BusinessJoVE Science EducationJoVE Lab ManualFaculty Resource CenterFaculty Site
Terms & Conditions of Use
Privacy Policy
Policies

Related Experiment Videos

Is the normal heart a periodic oscillator?

A Babloyantz1, A Destexhe

  • 1Faculté des Sciences, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium.

Biological Cybernetics
|January 1, 1988
PubMed
Summary

Normal heartbeats are not perfectly regular, exhibiting deterministic chaos. Nonlinear dynamics reveal short-range correlations in heart rate variability, suggesting underlying physiological processes and potential for clinical diagnosis.

Related Concept Videos

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by
Same author

A Roadmap to Navigate the Future of Neural Engineering.

Journal of neural engineering·2026
Same author

Listening to the sound of your own brain waves enhances sleep quality and quantity.

Sleep medicine·2025
Same author

A mean-field approach to the dynamics of networks of complex neurons, from nonlinear Integrate-and-Fire to Hodgkin-Huxley models.

Journal of neurophysiology·2019
Same author

Pacemaker-Induced Coherence in Cortical Networks.

Neural computation·2019
Same author

Heterogeneous firing rate response of mouse layer V pyramidal neurons in the fluctuation-driven regime.

The Journal of physiology·2016
Same author

Application of active electrode compensation to perform continuous voltage-clamp recordings with sharp microelectrodes.

Journal of neural engineering·2014

Area of Science:

  • Cardiology
  • Nonlinear Dynamics
  • Physiology

Background:

  • The human heart's electrical activity, as measured by electrocardiograms (ECG), is traditionally viewed as a regular process.
  • Understanding the underlying dynamics of cardiac function is crucial for accurate diagnosis and modeling.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To qualitatively and quantitatively analyze human electrocardiograms (ECG) using nonlinear dynamics methods.
  • To investigate the nature of cardiac activity and interbeat interval variability in normal human hearts.

Main Methods:

  • Analysis of 36 ECG leads from four normal subjects.
  • Application of nonlinear dynamics techniques including power spectrum, autocorrelation function, phase portrait, Poincaré section, correlation dimension (D2), Lyapunov exponent, and Kolmogorov entropy.
  • Construction of phase spaces using time lags and direct space vectors for D2 evaluation.

Main Results:

  • Normal cardiac activity is characterized by deterministic chaos, not perfect oscillation.
  • Correlation dimensions (D2) ranged from 3.6 to 5.2, indicating complex dynamics.
  • Interbeat interval variabilities are not random, showing short-range correlations governed by deterministic laws.

Conclusions:

  • Human cardiac activity exhibits deterministic chaotic dynamics.
  • Short-range correlations in heart rate variability may reflect physiological acceleration/deceleration processes.
  • This nonlinear dynamics approach offers potential for clinical diagnosis and evaluating cardiac models.

Related Experiment Videos