Parasympathetic nervous system heart rate affected

Although blood pressure control follows Ohm s law and seems to be simple, it underlies a complex circuit of interrelated systems. Hence, numerous physiologic systems that have pleiotropic effects and interact in complex fashion have been found to modulate blood pressure. Because of their number and complexity it is beyond the scope of the current account to cover all mechanisms and feedback circuits involved in blood pressure control. Rather, an overview of the clinically most relevant ones is presented. These systems include the heart, the blood vessels, the extracellular volume, the kidneys, the nervous system, a variety of humoral factors, and molecular events at the cellular level. They are intertwined to maintain adequate tissue perfusion and nutrition. Normal blood pressure control can be related to cardiac output and the total peripheral resistance. The stroke volume and the heart rate determine cardiac output. Each cycle of cardiac contraction propels a bolus of about 70 ml blood into the systemic arterial system. As one example of the interaction of these multiple systems, the stroke volume is dependent in part on intravascular volume regulated by the kidneys as well as on myocardial contractility. The latter is, in turn, a complex function involving sympathetic and parasympathetic control of heart rate intrinsic activity of the cardiac conduction system complex membrane transport and cellular events requiring influx of calcium, which lead to myocardial fibre shortening and relaxation and affects the humoral substances (e.g., catecholamines) in stimulation heart rate and myocardial fibre tension. 

Dmgs can affect cardiac contraction by stimulating or inhibiting the heart. Contractions are also influenced by the autonomic nervous system (ANS). The sympathetic nervous system increases heart rate and the parasympathetic nervous system decreases heart rate. (See Chapter 15.)... 

Further, heart rate does not provide diagnostic information about the soitree of mental workload. O Donnell and Eggemeier (1986) define diagnosticity as the "capability of a technique to discriminate the amount of workload imposed on different operator capacities or resources" (p. 42-3). Backs (1995) offers two reasons for heart rate s limited diagnostic utility. First, heart rate is affected by physical derrtands that may be independent of mental workload. Second, heart rate does not provide information about the separation of the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system activity. 

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