Reduced Heartbeat-Evoked Responses in a Near-Death Case Report

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.

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.

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.

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.