2021 Volume 28 Issue 1 Pages 06-15
This study was aimed at investigating whether arterial pressure and heart rate vary during static and dynamic postural changes with noisy galvanic vestibular stimulation (nGVS). Twelve healthy young adults participated in the study. They were asked to maintain a static supine position on a flat reclining bed for 10 min, and the bed was passively tilted up (TU) to enable sitting. After maintaining this position for 2 min, the bed was passively tilted down (TD), keeping the subjects in a static spine position for 3 min. Real-nGVS or sham-nGVS was applied from 3 to 13 min. The arterial pressure and electrical cardiograph were recorded during the examination. The time course of mean arterial pressure (MAP) and RR interval variability to estimate the autonomic nervous activity were analyzed. As a result, MAP increased after TU in both stimulation conditions, and this increment in the real condition was 6 s faster than in the sham condition. In the TD, MAP decreased, and the reduction in nGVS was delayed by 6 s compared to the sham condition. Further, our results suggested that the sympathetic activity could be related to this MAP modulation estimated by the power spectrum analysis using RR intervals. Additionally, pain was not present in any subject; however, one subject reported slight dizziness during TD during real-nGVS. In conclusion, nGVS can affect MAP modulation in young adults during dynamic postural changes with the modulation of sympathetic activity.
