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Effects of gravitational acceleration on cardiovascular autonomic control in resting humans

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Abstract

Purpose

Previous studies of cardiovascular responses in hypergravity suggest increased sympathetic regulation. The analysis of spontaneous heart rate variability (HRV) parameters and spontaneous baroreflex sensitivity (BRS) informs on the reciprocal balance of parasympathetic and sympathetic regulations at rest. This paper was aimed at determining the effects of gravitational acceleration (a g) on HRV and BRS.

Methods

Eleven healthy subjects (age 26.6 ± 6.1) were studied in a human centrifuge at four a g levels (1, 1.5, 2 and 2.5 g) during 5-min sessions at rest. We evaluated spontaneous variability of R–R interval (RR), and of systolic and diastolic blood pressure (SAP and DAP, respectively), by power spectral analysis, and BRS by the sequence method, using the BRSanalysis® software.

Results

At 2.5 g, compared to 1 g, (1) the total power (P TOT) and the powers of LF and HF components of HRV were lower, while the LF/HF ratio was higher; (2) normalized units for LF and HF did not changed significantly; (3) the P TOT, LF and HF powers of SAP were higher; (4) the P TOT and LF power of DAP were higher; and (5) BRS was decreased.

Conclusions

These results do not agree with the notion of sympathetic up-regulation supported by the increase in HR and DAP (tonic indices), and of SAP and DAP LF powers (oscillatory indices). The P TOT reduction leads to speculate that only the sympathetic branch of the ANS might have been active during elevated a g exposure. The vascular response occurred in a condition of massive baroreceptive unloading.

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Abbreviations

a g :

Gravitational acceleration

ANOVA:

Analysis of variance

ANS:

Autonomic nervous system

BRS:

Baroreflex sensitivity

DAP:

Diastolic arterial pressure

FFT:

Fast fourier transform

G z :

Vertical acceleration

HR:

Heart rate

HF:

High frequency

HFnu:

Normalized high frequency

HRV:

Heart rate variability

LF:

Low frequency

LFnu:

Normalized low frequency

LF/HF:

Low and high frequency ratio

MAP:

Mean arterial pressure

MSNA:

Muscle sympathetic nerve activity

P TOT :

Total power

R P :

Total peripheral resistance

SAP:

Systolic arterial pressure

VLF:

Very low frequency

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported by Swiss National Science Foundation grants 3200B0 102181 and 32003B_143427 to Guido Ferretti, by a grant from the Access to Ground Based Facilities Initiative of the European Space Agency to Dag Linnarsson and by Italian Space Agency grant ASI/DCMC to Carlo Capelli.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Département de Neurosciences Fondamentales, Université de Genève, 1, Rue Michel Servet, 1211, Geneve 4, Switzerland

    Timothée Fontolliet, Julien Bonjour & Guido Ferretti

  2. EA SNA-Epis 4607, Université Jean-Monnet, Saint-Étienne, France

    Timothée Fontolliet, Vincent Pichot & Jean-Claude Barthélémy

  3. Dipartimento di Scienze e Tecnologie Biomediche, Università di Udine, Udine, Italy

    Guglielmo Antonutto

  4. Dipartimento di Scienze Neurologiche e del Movimento, Università di Verona, Verona, Italy

    Carlo Capelli & Enrico Tam

  5. Dipartimento di Scienze Cliniche e Sperimentali, Università di Brescia, Brescia, Italy

    Guido Ferretti

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  1. Timothée Fontolliet
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  2. Vincent Pichot
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  3. Guglielmo Antonutto
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  4. Julien Bonjour
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  5. Carlo Capelli
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  6. Enrico Tam
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  7. Jean-Claude Barthélémy
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  8. Guido Ferretti
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Correspondence to Timothée Fontolliet.

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Communicated by Massimo Pagani.

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Fontolliet, T., Pichot, V., Antonutto, G. et al. Effects of gravitational acceleration on cardiovascular autonomic control in resting humans. Eur J Appl Physiol 115, 1417–1427 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00421-015-3117-9

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