Periodic Concentration of Mental Attention Changes the Structure of Oscillatory Processes in the Cardiovascular System

Abstract

In this study, the subjects were asked to track the low-frequency rhythm of amplitude-modulated acoustic white noise in the series that required the varying degrees of periodic concentration of sensory and motor attention. We measured heart rate variability (HRV), frequency and depth of chest excursions, blood flow perfusion in the skin of the wrist and fingertip, and their spectral characteristics. The study included women and men aged 18–25 years with normal blood pressure and without skin disorders, cardiovascular or respiratory diseases. It has been found that mental activity in the form of periodic concentration of sensory and motor attention in combination with arbitrary periodic muscular activity has a significant effect on the rhythmic structure of oscillations in the central and peripheral components of the cardiovascular system. For HRV, the dependence of the amplitude of induced oscillations on the frequency of exposure has resonant properties and is described by a bell-shaped curve with a maximum in the range of 0.07–0.1 Hz. For the skin blood flow, the frequency dependence has a non-linear nearly S-shaped pattern. We suppose that induced oscillations of the microcirculatory blood flow in the skin under conditions of periodic concentration of attention are mainly due to the central modulation of the neurogenic (sympathetic) mechanisms of the vascular tone.