Functional stochastic resonance in human baroreflex induced by 1/f-type noisy galvanic vestibular stimulation

摘要

We hypothesized that 1/f noise is more beneficial than the conventional white noise in optimizing the brain's response to a weak input signal, and showed that externally added 1/f noise outperforms white noise in sensitizing human baroreflex centers in the brain. We examined the compensatory heart rate response to weak periodic signal introduced at the venous blood pressure receptor, while adding either 1/f or white noise with the same variance to the brain stem by electrically stimulating the bilateral vestibular afferents cutaneously. This stochastic galvanic vestibular stimulation, activating the vestibulo-sympathetic pathway in the brain stem, optimized covariance between weak input signals and the heart rate responses both with 1/f and white noise. Further, the optimal noise level with 1/f noise was significantly lower than that with white noise, suggesting the functional benefit of 1/f noise for the neuronal information transfer in the brain.