Takashi Numata

Circadian changes of influence of swallowing on heart rate variability with respiratory-phase domain analysis

Respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) is known as an index of cardiac vagal activity and useful to evaluate the response of the cardiovascular system to external stimuli. As an external stimulation, swallowing is known to strongly affect the cardiovascular system. However, the influence of swallowing and its relation with the autonomic nervous system remain incompletely understood. In this study, since autonomic nervous control of the cardiovascular system has a circadian rhythm, we evaluated circadian changes of influence of swallowing on RSA. Measurements were conducted on healthy humans with periodic swallowing in the morning, afternoon, and evening. RSA waveforms were extracted from an instantaneous R-R Interval (RRI) as functions of the respiratory phase and the data were divided into three subsets with respiration with swallowing, one respiration after the swallowing, and normal respiration. As a result, the RSA amplitude during respiration with swallowing was larger in the morning than in the evening. In addition, the minimum RRI during respiration with swallowing was larger in the morning than in the afternoon and evening. Thus, circadian changes of influence of swallowing on the RSA amplitude are extracted and swallowing-induced tachycardia is different with different states of autonomic nervous activity. Therefore, vagal activity should largely contribute to tachycardia induced by swallowing and evaluation of circadian changes of influences of external stimuli would be useful to investigate the mechanisms of response of the cardiovascular system to external stimuli.

Rearrangeable and exchangeable optical module with system-on-chip for wearable functional near-infrared spectroscopy system

Abstract. We developed a system-on-chip (SoC)-incorporated light-emitting diode (LED) and avalanche photodiode (APD) modules to improve the usability and flexibility of a fiberless wearable functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) system. The SoC has a microprocessing unit and programmable circuits. The time division method and the lock-in method were used for separately detecting signals from different positions and signals of different wavelengths, respectively. Each module autonomously works for this time-divided-lock-in measurement with a high sensitivity for haired regions. By supplying +3.3  V of power and base and data clocks, the LED module emits both 730- and 855-nm wavelengths of light, amplitudes of which are modulated in each lock-in frequency generated from the base clock, and the APD module provides the lock-in detected signals synchronizing with the data clock. The SoC provided many functions, including automatic-power-control of the LED, automatic judgment of detected power level, and automatic-gain-control of the programmable gain amplifier. The number and the arrangement of modules can be adaptively changed by connecting this exchangeable modules in a daisy chain and setting the parameters dependent on the probing position. Therefore, users can configure a variety of arrangements (single- or multidistance combinations) of them with this module-based system.