Liu Yawen, Niu Haijun, Zhang Tingting, Cai Linkun, Liu Dong, Zhao Erwei, Zhu Liang, Qiao PengGang, Zheng Wei, Ren Pengling, Wang Zhenchang
School of Biological Science and Medical Engineering, Beihang University, Beijing, China.
Department of Radiology, Beijing Friendship Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China.
Front Neurosci. 2023 Jan 6;16:1033569. doi: 10.3389/fnins.2022.1033569. eCollection 2022.
There is a growing interest in exploring brain-heart interactions. However, few studies have investigated the brain-heart interactions in healthy populations, especially in healthy young adults. The aim of this study was to explore the association between cardiovascular and spontaneous brain activities during dobutamine infusion in healthy young adults.
Forty-eight right-handed healthy participants (43 males and 5 females, range: 22-34 years) underwent vital signs monitoring, cognitive function assessment and brain MRI scans. Cardiovascular function was evaluated using blood pressure and heart rate, while two resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) methods-regional homogeneity (ReHo) and amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (ALFF)-were used together to reflect the local neural activity of the brain. Logistic regression was used to model the association between brain and heart.
Results showed that blood pressure and heart rate significantly increased after dobutamine infusion, and the performance in brain functional activity was the decrease in ReHo in the left gyrus rectus and in ALFF in the left frontal superior orbital. The results of logistic regression showed that the difference of diastolic blood pressure (DBP) had significant positive relationship with the degree of change of ReHo, while the difference of systolic blood pressure (SBP) had significant negative impact on the degree of change in ALFF.
These findings suggest that the brain-heart interactions exist in healthy young adults under acute cardiovascular alterations, and more attention should be paid to blood pressure changes in young adults and assessment of frontal lobe function to provide them with more effective health protection management.
探索脑-心相互作用的兴趣与日俱增。然而，很少有研究调查健康人群，尤其是健康年轻成年人中的脑-心相互作用。本研究的目的是探讨健康年轻成年人在多巴酚丁胺输注期间心血管活动与自发性脑活动之间的关联。
48名右利手健康参与者（43名男性和5名女性，年龄范围：22 - 34岁）接受了生命体征监测、认知功能评估和脑部MRI扫描。使用血压和心率评估心血管功能，同时结合两种静息态功能磁共振成像（rs-fMRI）方法——局部一致性（ReHo）和低频振幅（ALFF）来反映大脑的局部神经活动。采用逻辑回归模型分析脑与心之间的关联。
结果显示，多巴酚丁胺输注后血压和心率显著升高，脑功能活动表现为左侧直回的ReHo降低以及左侧额上眶回的ALFF降低。逻辑回归结果表明，舒张压（DBP）差异与ReHo变化程度呈显著正相关，而收缩压（SBP）差异对ALFF变化程度有显著负面影响。
这些发现表明，在急性心血管改变情况下，健康年轻成年人中存在脑-心相互作用，应更加关注年轻成年人的血压变化以及额叶功能评估，以便为他们提供更有效的健康保护管理。
