Stochastic feedback and the regulation of biological rhythms

¹ Center for Polymer Studies and Department of Physics, Boston University Boston, MA 02215, USA
² Department of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
³ Cardiovascular Division, Harvard Medical School Beth Israel Hospital, Boston, MA 02215, USA

Received: 12 May 1998
Accepted: 26 June 1998

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.