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Cited by 100Cardiovascular and exercise physiologyHeart Rate Variability and Autonomic ControlMuscle activation and electromyography studies

Autonomic control of the heart during exercise in humans: role of skeletal muscle afferents

Open access
Fisher, James P.·2014·Experimental Physiology
DOI 10.1113/expphysiol.2013.074377
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Abstract

New findings: What is the topic of this review? The autonomic nervous system plays a key role in bringing about the cardiovascular responses to exercise necessitated by the increased metabolic requirements of the active skeletal muscle. The complex interaction of central and peripheral neural control mechanisms evokes a decrease in parasympathetic activity and an increase sympathetic activity to the heart during exercise. What advances does it highlight? This review presents some of the recent insights provided by human studies into the role of mechanically and metabolically sensitive skeletal muscle afferents in the regulation of cardiac autonomic control during exercise. The autonomic responses to exercise are orchestrated by the interactions of several central and peripheral neural mechanisms. This report focuses on the role of peripheral feedback from skeletal muscle afferents in the autonomic control of the heart during exercise in humans. Heart rate responses to passive calf stretch are abolished with cardiac parasympathetic blockade, indicating that the activation of mechanically sensitive skeletal muscle afferents (muscle mechanoreceptors) can inhibit cardiac parasympathetic activity and is likely to contribute to the increase in heart rate at the onset of exercise. Recent experiments show that the partial restriction of blood flow to the exercising skeletal muscles, to augment the activation of metabolically sensitive skeletal muscle afferents (muscle metaboreceptors) in humans, evokes an increase in heart rate that is attenuated with β 1‐adrenergic blockade, thus suggesting that this response is principally mediated via an increase in cardiac sympathetic activity. Heart rate remains at resting levels during isolated activation of muscle metaboreceptors with postexercise ischaemia following hand grip, unless cardiac parasympathetic activity is inhibited, whereupon a sympathetically mediated increase in heart rate is unmasked. During postexercise ischaemia following leg cycling exercise, heart rate appears to remain elevated due to withdrawal of parasympathetic tone and/or the activation of sympathetic activity to the heart. Although the importance of skeletal muscle afferent feedback to the autonomic control of the heart during exercise is incontrovertible, the complexity of cardiac sympathetic–parasympathetic interactions and the absence of direct intraneural recordings in humans mean that it remains incompletely understood.

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  • The first minute of heart rate recovery is largely attributable to parasympathetic reactivation, whereas further HR reduction depends on the gradual decrease in sympathetic nerve activity.

    “The first minute of HR recovery is largely attributable to parasympathetic reactivation, whereas further HR reduction depends on the gradual decrease in sympathetic nerve activity.25,26”

    From Caffeine delays autonomic recovery following acute exercise (2015) · cites this paper as [26]

    The 'Muscle metaboreceptors and cardiac autonomic control' section (page not specified) proposes that parasympathetic activity reactivates when exercise stops and can lower heart rate despite sympathetic influence. It does not establish that this accounts for the first minute of recovery or that later heart-rate reduction depends on a gradual decline in sympathetic nerve activity. (LLM, conf=0.86)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

  • Even unstressed infants have a wide range of normal heart rate with the 99th percentile in the 180 bpm range shortly after birth, decreasing to 160 bpm at 1 year, 110 bpm by age 12, and 100 bpm by 18.

    “Even unstressed infants have a wide range of normal HR with the 99th percentile in the 180 bpm range shortly after birth, decreasing to 160 bpm at 1 year, 110 bpm by age 12, and 100 bpm by 18231.”

    From Sinus Tachycardia: a Multidisciplinary Expert Focused Review (2022) · cites this paper as [231]

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  1. [15]15. C 2013 The Author. Experimental Physiology C 2013 The Physiological Society 1469445x, 2014, 2, Downloaded from https://physoc.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1113/expphysiol.2013.074377 by Readcube (Labtiva Inc.), Wiley Online Library on [31/08/2023]. See the Terms and Conditions (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions) on Wiley Online Library for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons License

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Authors
Fisher, J. P.
Affiliations
University of Birmingham (GB)
Corresponding author
Fisher, James P.
ORCID
Fisher, James P.
Venue
Experimental Physiology
Publisher
Wiley
Published
2013-10-02
Volume
99
Issue
2
Pages
300-305
ISSN
  • 0958-0670 (ISSN-L)
  • 1469-445X
DOI
10.1113/expphysiol.2013.074377
OpenAlex
W2098127105
Semantic Scholar
53b7ce43330d47a3a12ae79941814e37391bd583
Cited by
100
References
41
Citations by year
2026: 5 · 2025: 6 · 2024: 12 · 2023: 8 · 2022: 7 · 2021: 10 · 2020: 10 · 2019: 10 · 2018: 11 · 2017: 8 · 2016: 1 · 2015: 4 · 2014: 7
FWCI
0.96
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/termsAndConditions#vor (vor)
Locations
  • Experimental Physiology (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • University of Birmingham Research Portal (University of Birmingham) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Complementary and alternative medicine › Cardiovascular and exercise physiology
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Cardiology and Cardiovascular Medicine › Heart Rate Variability and Autonomic Control
  • Physical Sciences › Engineering › Biomedical Engineering › Muscle activation and electromyography studies
Keywords
cardiac autonomic control, physical activity, skeletal muscle afferents, muscle mechanoreceptors, heart rate, parasympathetic activity, cardiac sympathetic activity, beta1-adrenergic blockade, handgrip exercise
MeSH terms
Animals, Autonomic Nervous System, Heart, Heart Rate, Humans, Neurons, Afferent, Exercise, Muscle, Skeletal

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