The effects of noninvasive brain stimulation on heart rate and heart rate variability: A systematic review and meta‐analysis

Abstract

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Transcranial direct current stimulation associated with pharmacological approaches in patients infected by SARS-CoV-2

“…Neuromodulation of the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex seems to present the potentiality to decrease the recovery time of the neurological disabilities generated by SARS-CoV-2 through different mechanisms 2 . The sympathetic and parasympathetic autonomic nervous system response seems to be involved in inflammatory modulation 4 . It is important to mention that in experimental models and preliminary data in human beings, vagus nerve stimulation attenuates inflammation, modulating activity of cholinergic anti-inflammatory pathways 5 .…”

Model-based concept to extract heart beat-to-beat variations beyond respiratory arrhythmia and baroreflex

“…The heart rate (HR) regulation involves a number of hierarchical levels from the inner nervous system of the heart to cerebral cortex (Palma and Benarroch, 2014;Schmaußer et al, 2022).…”

Anodal high-definition transcranial direct current stimulation reduces heart rate and modulates heart-rate variability in healthy young people: A randomized cross-controlled trial

“…It has been demonstrated that brain-heart communication might regulate the level of cortisol in hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis activity via an indirect pathway to affect the cardiovascular system (7,8). As outcome measures for evaluating the cardiac response, heart rate (HR) and heart-rate variability (HRV) have emerged as key parameters that reflect autonomic nervous system activity and cardiovascular health status (9,10).…”

“…Considering the involvement of some of these cortical regions in cardiovascular regulation, non-invasive brain stimulation (NIBS) may be useful to study their effects as a practical tool to investigate cardiac responses (9). Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), a NIBS technique, could induce a long-term potentiation (LTP)-like facilitation or long-term depression (LTD)-like suppression (17,18).…”

“…To date, limited research has focused on the effects of NIBS on the cardiac response and the efficacy of this technique, and the results of these studies were frequently not conclusive (24). In a meta-analysis, Maximilian demonstrated that tDCS alters the HR and HRV with small-to-medium effect sizes (9). Studies have shown that anodal tDCS (1.5 mA) over the left DLPFC of healthy volunteers gives rise to an increase in HF values and a decrease in cortisol levels (25).…”