On the relationship between ultraslow electroencephalogram oscillations and heart rate variability in vascular pathology

This study investigates the dynamic relationship between ultraslow electroencephalogram (EEG) oscillations and heart rate variability (HRV) in healthy individuals and patients with vascular pathologies, including vegetative-vascular dystonia and vertebrobasilar insufficiency. Using synchrosqueezed wavelet transform analysis — a method particularly effective for extracting instantaneous frequencies from noisy physiological data — we compared bioelectrical activity patterns between control subjects and clinical groups. The focus on ultraslow oscillations (<0.5 Hz) stems from their established role in cardiovascular regulation, unlike higher EEG frequencies. Key findings demonstrate pathological variations in synchronization dynamics: patients with vertebrobasilar insufficiency exhibited significantly shorter synchronization latencies between EEG and HRV frequencies compared to vegetative-vascular dystonia cases.