Taranikanti Madhuri, Mudunuru Aswin Kumar, Gaur Archana, Kauser Anzala, Taranikanti Sai Shriya, Umesh Madhusudhan, Ganji Vidya, Medala Kalpana, Katta Roja, Sakthivadivel Varatharajan, Dronamraju Akhila, Guntuka Rohith Kumar
Department of Physiology, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Bibinagar, Hyderabad, Telangana, India.
Department of Physiology, ESIC Medical College and Hospital, Hyderabad, Telangana, India.
Ann Neurosci. 2023 Apr;30(2):109-118. doi: 10.1177/09727531221135999. Epub 2022 Dec 12.
Hypertension is a modifiable risk factor for cardiovascular disease and is responsible for major deaths due to stroke and coronary heart disease. Several pharmacological and non-pharmacological interventions for reducing blood pressure have been tried earlier. Modulating brain regions such as prefrontal cortex (PFC) to channelize activities is an effective tool to target blood pressure.
Prefrontal cortex (PFC) exerts inhibitory control over sympathoexcitatory circuits, which was explored using a novel reaction time paradigm.
Thirty participants of both genders in the age group 40-70 years with established hypertension were included. A structured reaction time paradigm was designed to include psychomotor and visuomotor elements with integrated sensory attention and motor performance tasks. Blood pressure, Lead II ECG, and EEG from F3 and F4 were recorded. A paired t-test was used to examine the variations in these parameters across tasks.
A significant reduction in mean arterial pressure by 4.04 mmHg ( = .0232) during the visuomotor task and a reduction of 3.38 mmHg during the auditory cue task ( = .0446) were observed. Analysis of the difference in heart rate has shown a profound decrease after passive listening tasks by 3.7 beats ( < .0001*). Spectral analysis from F3 and F4 shows high power in low-frequency zone of EEG indicating a relaxed state during auditory cues and passive listening.
The reaction time paradigm, when applied to hypertensives, helped decrease blood pressure and heart rate and improved the high frequency (HF) component of heart rate variability, indicating parasympathetic dominance. Such reward-oriented paradigms may act as biofeedback modules that cause hyperactivity of the PFC to suppress the sympathoexcitatory circuit with increased parasympathetic activity beneficial to hypertensive individuals.
高血压是心血管疾病的一个可改变的危险因素，是导致中风和冠心病主要死亡的原因。此前已经尝试了几种降低血压的药物和非药物干预措施。调节前额叶皮层（PFC）等脑区以引导活动是控制血压的有效手段。
前额叶皮层（PFC）对交感神经兴奋回路发挥抑制控制作用，本研究使用一种新颖的反应时范式对此进行了探索。
纳入30名年龄在40 - 70岁之间确诊为高血压的男女参与者。设计了一种结构化反应时范式，包括心理运动和视觉运动元素，以及综合的感觉注意力和运动表现任务。记录血压、II导联心电图以及F3和F4导联的脑电图。使用配对t检验来检查这些参数在不同任务中的变化。
在视觉运动任务期间平均动脉压显著降低4.04 mmHg（P = 0.0232），在听觉提示任务期间降低3.38 mmHg（P = 0.0446）。心率差异分析显示，被动聆听任务后心率显著下降3.7次/分钟（P < 0.0001*）。F3和F4的频谱分析显示脑电图低频区功率较高，表明在听觉提示和被动聆听期间处于放松状态。
反应时范式应用于高血压患者时，有助于降低血压和心率，并改善心率变异性的高频（HF）成分，表明副交感神经占优势。这种以奖励为导向的范式可能作为生物反馈模块，使PFC过度活跃，从而抑制交感神经兴奋回路，增加副交感神经活动，对高血压患者有益。
