Grossman Paul, Taylor Edwin W
Department of Psychosomatic and Internal Medicine, Psychophysiology Research Laboratory, University of Basel Hospital, Hebelstrasse 2, CH-4031 Basel, Switzerland.
Biol Psychol. 2007 Feb;74(2):263-85. doi: 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2005.11.014. Epub 2006 Nov 1.
Respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA, or high-frequency heart-rate variability) is frequently employed as an index of cardiac vagal tone or even believed to be a direct measure of vagal tone. However, there are many significant caveats regarding vagal tone interpretation: 1. Respiratory parameters can confound relations between RSA and cardiac vagal tone.2. Although intraindividual relations between RSA and cardiac vagal control are often strong, interindividual associations may be modest.3. RSA measurement is profoundly influenced by concurrent levels of momentary physical activity, which can bias estimation of individual differences in vagal tone.4. RSA magnitude is affected by beta-adrenergic tone.5. RSA and cardiac vagal tone can dissociate under certain circumstances.6. The polyvagal theory contains evolution-based speculations that relate RSA, vagal tone and behavioral phenomena. We present evidence that the polyvagal theory does not accurately depict evolution of vagal control of heart-rate variability, and that it ignores the phenomenon of cardiac aliasing and disregards the evolution of a functional role for vagal control of the heart, from cardiorespiratory synchrony in fish to RSA in mammals. Unawareness of these issues can lead to misinterpretation of cardiovascular autonomic mechanisms. On the other hand, RSA has been shown to often provide a reasonable reflection of cardiac vagal tone when the above-mentioned complexities are considered. Finally, a recent hypothesis is expanded upon, in which RSA plays a primary role in regulation of energy exchange by means of synchronizing respiratory and cardiovascular processes during metabolic and behavioral change.
呼吸性窦性心律失常（RSA，即高频心率变异性）常被用作心脏迷走神经张力的指标，甚至被认为是迷走神经张力的直接测量方法。然而，在迷走神经张力的解读方面存在许多重要的注意事项：1. 呼吸参数可能会混淆RSA与心脏迷走神经张力之间的关系。2. 虽然RSA与心脏迷走神经控制之间的个体内关系通常很强，但个体间的关联可能较弱。3. RSA测量受到瞬间身体活动同时水平的深刻影响，这可能会使迷走神经张力个体差异的估计产生偏差。4. RSA大小受β-肾上腺素能张力影响。5. RSA和心脏迷走神经张力在某些情况下可能会分离。6. 多元迷走神经理论包含基于进化的推测，将RSA、迷走神经张力和行为现象联系起来。我们提供的证据表明，多元迷走神经理论不能准确描述心率变异性的迷走神经控制的进化，它忽略了心脏混叠现象，也忽视了迷走神经对心脏控制的功能作用的进化，从鱼类的心肺同步到哺乳动物的RSA。对这些问题的忽视可能导致对心血管自主机制的误解。另一方面，当考虑到上述复杂性时，RSA通常已被证明能合理反映心脏迷走神经张力。最后，对最近的一个假设进行了扩展，即在代谢和行为变化过程中，RSA通过使呼吸和心血管过程同步，在能量交换调节中起主要作用。
