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Measuring heart rate variability in horses to investigate the autonomic nervous system activity - Pros and cons of different methods

Stucke, Diana ; Grosse Ruse, Mareile LU and Lebelt, Dirk (2015) In Applied Animal Behaviour Science 166. p.1-10
Abstract
Power spectrum analysis of heart rate variability (HRV) may provide insight into the mental state of the animal held in restricted specific experimental conditions. Determining inter-beat-interval (IBI) variations is one way to measure changes in autonomic nervous system (ANS) activity in horses. An imbalance between the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system can indicate pain or stress, for example, if other stimuli such as excitement or fear can be eliminated. However, the outcomes of a HRV analysis hinge on the accuracy of the IBI measurements and the analysis methods. Applied measurement techniques, analysis methods and even frequency bands for power spectrum analysis differ considerably across studies. Hence, the measurement... (More)
Power spectrum analysis of heart rate variability (HRV) may provide insight into the mental state of the animal held in restricted specific experimental conditions. Determining inter-beat-interval (IBI) variations is one way to measure changes in autonomic nervous system (ANS) activity in horses. An imbalance between the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system can indicate pain or stress, for example, if other stimuli such as excitement or fear can be eliminated. However, the outcomes of a HRV analysis hinge on the accuracy of the IBI measurements and the analysis methods. Applied measurement techniques, analysis methods and even frequency bands for power spectrum analysis differ considerably across studies. Hence, the measurement of heart rate variability in horses is handled rather inconsistently and results from different studies are not entirely comparable. The current review presents an overview of the technical issues of HRV analyses, then discusses recent HRV measurements in horses and finally gives recommendations for standardised IBI-measurement and HRV analysis in horses. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. (Less)
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author
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type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Horse, Heart rate variability (HRV), Frequency-domain analysis, Fast, Fourier transform (FFT), Autoregressive modelling (AR), Autonomic, nervous system
in
Applied Animal Behaviour Science
volume
166
pages
1 - 10
publisher
Elsevier
external identifiers
  • wos:000353613300001
  • scopus:84933177294
ISSN
0168-1591
DOI
10.1016/j.applanim.2015.02.007
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
20065a11-82d1-48ec-9588-29a6cc4dad1c (old id 7433087)
date added to LUP
2016-04-01 10:27:21
date last changed
2022-03-27 08:28:12
@article{20065a11-82d1-48ec-9588-29a6cc4dad1c,
  abstract     = {{Power spectrum analysis of heart rate variability (HRV) may provide insight into the mental state of the animal held in restricted specific experimental conditions. Determining inter-beat-interval (IBI) variations is one way to measure changes in autonomic nervous system (ANS) activity in horses. An imbalance between the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system can indicate pain or stress, for example, if other stimuli such as excitement or fear can be eliminated. However, the outcomes of a HRV analysis hinge on the accuracy of the IBI measurements and the analysis methods. Applied measurement techniques, analysis methods and even frequency bands for power spectrum analysis differ considerably across studies. Hence, the measurement of heart rate variability in horses is handled rather inconsistently and results from different studies are not entirely comparable. The current review presents an overview of the technical issues of HRV analyses, then discusses recent HRV measurements in horses and finally gives recommendations for standardised IBI-measurement and HRV analysis in horses. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.}},
  author       = {{Stucke, Diana and Grosse Ruse, Mareile and Lebelt, Dirk}},
  issn         = {{0168-1591}},
  keywords     = {{Horse; Heart rate variability (HRV); Frequency-domain analysis; Fast; Fourier transform (FFT); Autoregressive modelling (AR); Autonomic; nervous system}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  pages        = {{1--10}},
  publisher    = {{Elsevier}},
  series       = {{Applied Animal Behaviour Science}},
  title        = {{Measuring heart rate variability in horses to investigate the autonomic nervous system activity - Pros and cons of different methods}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.applanim.2015.02.007}},
  doi          = {{10.1016/j.applanim.2015.02.007}},
  volume       = {{166}},
  year         = {{2015}},
}