Vagal regulation during bottle feeding in low-birthweight neonates: support for the gustatory-vagal hypothesis

The gustatory-vagal hypothesis proposes that gustatory stimulation elicits a coordinated vagal response manifested as an increase in ingestive behaviors (e.g., sucking) and a decrease in nucleus ambiguus vagal tone measured by decreases in the amplitude of respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA). The current study tested the gustatory-vagal hypothesis in a bottle feeding paradigm with 29 clinically stable, high-risk, low-birthweight neonates. The amplitude of respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) was collected before, during, and after bottle feeding. Consistent with the gustatory-vagal hypothesis, RSA decreased during bottle feeding. In a longitudinal subsample of subjects, the pattern of RSA changes during the feeding paradigm was stable across two test sessions.