Bifurcations in a nonlinear model of the baroreceptor-cardiac reflex

Abstract We investigate the dynamic properties of a nonlinear model of the human cardio-baroreceptor control loop. As a new feature we use a phase effectiveness curve to describe the experimentally well-known phase dependency of the cardiac pacemaker's sensitivity to neural activity. We show that an increase of sympathetic time delays leads via a Hopf bifurcation to sustained heart rate oscillations. For increasing baroreflex sensitivity or for repetitive vagal stimulation we observe period-doubling, toroidal oscillations, chaos, and entrainment between the rhythms of the heart and the control loop. The bifurcations depend crucially on the involvement of the cardiac pacemaker's phase dependency. We compare the model output with experimental data from electrically stimulated anesthetized dogs and discuss possible implications for cardiac arrhythmias.