Chapter 18
Phase Coherence of Finger Skin Blood
Flow Oscillations Induced by Controlled
Breathing in Humans
Arina V. Tankanag, Gennady V. Krasnikov, and Nikolai K. Chemeris
Abstract The influence of deep controlled breathing on phase coherence of
respiratory-related skin blood flow oscillations of left and right finger-pad forefingers in 29 healthy young females was studied. Breathing was controlled on both
rate (0.25, 0.16, 0.1, 0.07 and 0.05 Hz) and depth (40% of the maximal chest excursion). The correlation degree between the phases of respiratory-related skin blood
flow oscillations of left and right fingers was estimated from the value of wavelet
phase coherence . We obtained the significant increase of phase coherence for all
analyzed frequencies of controlled breathing as compared to spontaneous one. The
maximal increase was observed for controlled breathing at 0.25 Hz, at a frequency
close to the spontaneous one. We suggest that the observed effects are primarily due
to an increase of breathing depth. Under spontaneous breathing depth does not
exceed 15% of the maximal chest excursion, while in the present study the breathing
depth was 40%. The results obtained can be attributed to the effects of the autonomic
nervous system on vascular tone regulation under controlled breathing .
18.1 Introduction
The respiration effect on vascular bed can be described as an amplitude modulation
of the heart-synchronous pulsating signal. Spontaneous breathing is accompanied
by variations in the intrathoracic pressure, which determines the dynamics of the
breathing pump—blood venous return to the heart from the periphery [6, 12]. This
causes a cyclic variation in the cardiac output, maintains the average arterial blood
pressure and increases the activity of aortic and pulmonary baroreceptors. The latter
leads to a cyclic variation of activity in the corresponding structures of autonomic
A. V. Tankanag (B) · N. K. Chemeris
Institute of Cell Biophysics, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow region, Pushchino, Russian
Federation
e-mail: tav@icb.psn.ru
G. V. Krasnikov
Tula State Lev Tolstoy Pedagogical University, Tula, Russian Federation
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
A. Stefanovska and P. V. E. McClintock (eds.), Physics of Biological
Oscillators, Understanding Complex Systems,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-59805-1_18
281
Phase Coherence of Finger Skin Blood
Flow Oscillations Induced by Controlled
Breathing in Humans
Arina V. Tankanag, Gennady V. Krasnikov, and Nikolai K. Chemeris
Abstract The influence of deep controlled breathing on phase coherence of
respiratory-related skin blood flow oscillations of left and right finger-pad forefingers in 29 healthy young females was studied. Breathing was controlled on both
rate (0.25, 0.16, 0.1, 0.07 and 0.05 Hz) and depth (40% of the maximal chest excursion). The correlation degree between the phases of respiratory-related skin blood
flow oscillations of left and right fingers was estimated from the value of wavelet
phase coherence . We obtained the significant increase of phase coherence for all
analyzed frequencies of controlled breathing as compared to spontaneous one. The
maximal increase was observed for controlled breathing at 0.25 Hz, at a frequency
close to the spontaneous one. We suggest that the observed effects are primarily due
to an increase of breathing depth. Under spontaneous breathing depth does not
exceed 15% of the maximal chest excursion, while in the present study the breathing
depth was 40%. The results obtained can be attributed to the effects of the autonomic
nervous system on vascular tone regulation under controlled breathing .
18.1 Introduction
The respiration effect on vascular bed can be described as an amplitude modulation
of the heart-synchronous pulsating signal. Spontaneous breathing is accompanied
by variations in the intrathoracic pressure, which determines the dynamics of the
breathing pump—blood venous return to the heart from the periphery [6, 12]. This
causes a cyclic variation in the cardiac output, maintains the average arterial blood
pressure and increases the activity of aortic and pulmonary baroreceptors. The latter
leads to a cyclic variation of activity in the corresponding structures of autonomic
A. V. Tankanag (B) · N. K. Chemeris
Institute of Cell Biophysics, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow region, Pushchino, Russian
Federation
e-mail: tav@icb.psn.ru
G. V. Krasnikov
Tula State Lev Tolstoy Pedagogical University, Tula, Russian Federation
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
A. Stefanovska and P. V. E. McClintock (eds.), Physics of Biological
Oscillators, Understanding Complex Systems,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-59805-1_18
281