Assessing Synergy/Redundancy of Baroreflex and Non-Baroreflex Components of the Cardiac Control during Sleep

Cardiovascular regulation and autonomic function change across sleep stages and compared to wake. Little information is present in literature about cardiac control during sleep especially in relation to new information-theoretic quantities such as synergy and redundancy. In the present work we compute synergy and redundancy of baroreflex and non-baroreflex components of the cardiac control according to two information-theoretic approaches, namely predictive information decomposition (PID) and minimal mutual information (MMI) methods. We applied a bivariate approach to heart period (HP) and systolic arterial pressure (SAP) beat-to-beat variability series during sleep in a healthy subject. PID approach computes the net balance between synergy and redundancy, while MMI calculates the two quantities as separate entities. Results suggested that: i) redundancy was dominant over synergy during NREM phases; ii) redundancy increased during NREM phase; iii) synergy did not change across the sleep stages. We interpret this result as a consequence of the vagal enhancement, slowing and deepening of respiration during NREM phases. These preliminary findings support the potential of assessing redundancy/synergy of baroreflex-related and unrelated regulations during sleep to improve our knowledge about physiological mechanisms.