Dynamic brain-heart-gut coupling during sleep: a continuous physiological signal analysis.

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Physiology
• Systems Biology

Background:

• Understanding brain-heart-gut axis regulation during sleep is vital for coordinated system function.
• Current gut research often overlooks macroscopic dynamics, focusing mainly on microbiota.
• This study addresses the need for systematic investigation of gut function changes during sleep.

Purpose of the Study:

• To explore dynamic changes in brain-heart-gut coupling during sleep.
• To investigate the underlying mechanisms of these coupled physiological systems.
• To quantitatively assess brain-heart-gut interactions using non-invasive signals.

Main Methods:

• Collected electroencephalogram (EEG), electrocardiogram (ECG), and bowel sounds (BS) from 24 healthy subjects during sleep.
• Utilized signal processing and spectral analysis to extract power spectral values in different frequency bands.
• Employed the Maximal Information Coefficient (MIC) for dynamic monitoring and quantitative analysis of coupling strength.

Main Results:

• Brain-heart-gut coupling strength varied significantly across sleep stages, decreasing as sleep deepened.
• Heart-gut coupling (HGC) showed lower strength with the very low frequency (VLF) band of heart rate variability (HRV) compared to other HRV bands.
• Electroencephalogram (EEG) delta band exhibited higher coupling with HRV during non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep, while the beta band showed distinct patterns.

Conclusions:

• Successfully achieved quantitative assessment of brain-heart-gut coupling during sleep.
• Revealed specific patterns of coupling strength variations across different sleep stages.
• Provides new methodological support for diagnosing sleep disorders and functional bowel diseases.