Stochastic feedback and the regulation of biological rhythms.

Ivanov, PC, Amaral, LAN, Goldberger, AL, Stanley, HE.
Europhys. Lett. 43, 363-368 (1998)

Times cited: 87

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Abstract

We propose a general approach to the question of how biological rhythms spontaneously self-regulate, based on the concept of "stochastic feedback". We illustrate this approach by considering at a coarse-grained level the neuroautonomic regulation of the heart rate. The model generates complex dynamics and successfully accounts for key characteristics of cardiac variability, including the 1/f power spectrum, the functional form and scaling of the distribution of variations, and correlations in the Fourier phases indicating nonlinear dynamics.