Coordinated Brain-Heart Dynamics During Human NREM Sleep
- 1HUG, UniGE
Abstract
Communication between the brain and cardiovascular system is increasingly recognized as a fundamental determinant of health, yet the mechanisms coordinating neural and cardiac rhythms remain poorly understood. Sleep provides a unique physiological state for investigating neurovisceral integration because cortical slow oscillations (SOs), thalamocortical sleep spindles, and autonomic activity undergo profound reorganization during non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep. We analyzed overnight high-density electroencephalography and electrocardiography recordings from 30 healthy adults and quantified interactions among SOs, sleep spindles, cardiac R-peaks, heart rate variability (HRV), spectral slope, and Lempel-Ziv complexity. To assess integrated brain-heart coordination, we developed a Joint Phase-Amplitude Coupling (JPAC) metric that quantifies the corelation between SO phase-dependent modulation of spindle amplitude and cardiac timing. SO-spindle coupling showed the expected fronto-central distribution but was not significantly related to autonomic or cortical state markers. In contrast, SO-R-peak coupling and JPAC systematically tracked physiological state. Stronger JPAC was associated with higher high-frequency HRV, steeper spectral slopes, and lower neural complexity, indicating enhanced coupling during synchronized, parasympathetically dominated NREM sleep. These findings demonstrate coordinated organization of cortical, thalamocortical, and cardiac rhythms within a common oscillatory framework and identify NREM sleep as a state and potential treatment target of large-scale neurovisceral integration.
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BibTeX
@misc{mikutta2026coordinated,
title = {{Coordinated Brain-Heart Dynamics During Human NREM Sleep}},
author = {C. A. Mikutta and M. Planta and T. Koenig and K. Feher and P. Henckaerts and M. Angelillo and E. Hertenstein and C. L. Schneider and M. De Lucia and D. Riemann and B. Feige and V. V. Vyazovskiy and C. Nissen},
howpublished = {bioRxiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.64898/2026.09.29.755384},
url = {https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.29.755384v1},
note = {CC BY-NC-ND},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Coordinated Brain-Heart Dynamics During Human NREM Sleep
AU - C. A. Mikutta
AU - M. Planta
AU - T. Koenig
AU - K. Feher
AU - P. Henckaerts
AU - M. Angelillo
AU - E. Hertenstein
AU - C. L. Schneider
AU - M. De Lucia
AU - D. Riemann
AU - B. Feige
AU - V. V. Vyazovskiy
AU - C. Nissen
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/29
PB - bioRxiv
DO - 10.64898/2026.09.29.755384
UR - https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.09.29.755384v1
AB - Communication between the brain and cardiovascular system is increasingly recognized as a fundamental determinant of health, yet the mechanisms coordinating neural and cardiac rhythms remain poorly understood. Sleep provides a unique physiological state for investigating neurovisceral integration because cortical slow oscillations (SOs), thalamocortical sleep spindles, and autonomic activity undergo profound reorganization during non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep. We analyzed overnight high-density electroencephalography and electrocardiography recordings from 30 healthy adults and quantified interactions among SOs, sleep spindles, cardiac R-peaks, heart rate variability (HRV), spectral slope, and Lempel-Ziv complexity. To assess integrated brain-heart coordination, we developed a Joint Phase-Amplitude Coupling (JPAC) metric that quantifies the corelation between SO phase-dependent modulation of spindle amplitude and cardiac timing. SO-spindle coupling showed the expected fronto-central distribution but was not significantly related to autonomic or cortical state markers. In contrast, SO-R-peak coupling and JPAC systematically tracked physiological state. Stronger JPAC was associated with higher high-frequency HRV, steeper spectral slopes, and lower neural complexity, indicating enhanced coupling during synchronized, parasympathetically dominated NREM sleep. These findings demonstrate coordinated organization of cortical, thalamocortical, and cardiac rhythms within a common oscillatory framework and identify NREM sleep as a state and potential treatment target of large-scale neurovisceral integration.
ER -