Cerebral and systemic hemodynamic changes during cognitive and motor activation paradigms

Cognitive and/or sensorimotor stimulations of the brain induce increases in cerebral blood flow that are usually associated with increased metabolic demand. We tested the hypothesis that changes in arterial blood pressure (ABP) and arterial Pco2 also take place during brain activation protocols designed to induce hemispheric lateralization, leading to a pressure-autoregulatory response in addition to the metabolic-driven changes usually assumed by brain stimulation paradigms. Continuous recordings of cerebral blood flow velocity [CBFV; bilateral, middle cerebral artery (MCA)], ABP, ECG, and end-tidal Pco2 (PetCO2) were performed in 15 right-handed healthy subjects (aged 21–43 yr), in the seated position, at rest and during 10 repeated presentations of a word generation and a constructional puzzle paradigm that are known to induce differential cortical activation. Derived variables included heart rate, cerebrovascular resistance, critical closing pressure, resistance area product, and the difference between the right and left MCA recordings (CBFVR-L). No adaptation of the CBFVR-L difference was detected for the repeated presentation of 10 activation tasks, for either paradigm. During activation with the word generation tasks, CBFV changed by (mean ± SD) 9.0 ± 3.7% (right MCA, P = 0.0007) and by 12.3 ± 7.6% (left MCA, P = 0.0007), ABP by 7.7 ± 6.0 mmHg ( P = 0.0007), heart rate by 7.1 ± 5.3 beats/min ( P = 0.0008), and PetCO2 by −2.32 ± 2.23 Torr ( P = 0.002). For the puzzle paradigm, CBFV changed by 13.9 ± 6.6% (right MCA, P = 0.0007) and by 11.5 ± 6.2% (left MCA, P = 0.0007), ABP by 7.1 ± 8.4 mmHg ( P = 0.0054), heart rate by 7.9 ± 4.6 beats/min ( P = 0.0008), and PetCO2 by −2.42 ± 2.59 Torr ( P = 0.001). The word paradigm led to greater left hemispheric dominance than the right hemispheric dominance observed with the puzzle paradigm ( P = 0.004). We concluded that significant changes in ABP and PetCO2 levels occur during brain activation protocols, and these contribute to the evoked change in CBFV. A pressure-autoregulatory response can be observed in addition to the hemodynamic changes induced by increases in metabolic demand. Simultaneous changes in Pco2 and heart rate add to the complexity of the response, indicating the need for more detailed modeling and better understanding of brain activation paradigms.