Cardiac Rhythms and Variation in Hibernating Arctic Ground Squirrels

The dramatic decrease in heart rate ( HR) during entrance into hibernation is not a mere response to the lowering of core body temperature (T-b) but a highly regulated fall, as the decrease in HR precedes the drop in T-b. This regulated fall in HR is thought to be mediated by increased cardiac parasympathetic activity. Conversely, the sympathetic nervous system is thought to drive the increase of HR during arousal. Despite this general understanding, we lack temporal information on cardiac parasympathetic regulation throughout a complete hibernation bout. The goal of this study was to fill this gap in knowledge by using Arctic ground squirrels implanted with electrocardiogram/temperature telemetry transmitters. Short-term HR variability (root mean square of successive differences [RMSSD]), an indirect measure of cardiac parasympathetic regulation, was calculated in 11 Arctic ground squirrels. RMSSD, normalized as RMSSD/RR interval (RRI), increased fourfold during early entrance (from 0.2 +/- 0.1 to 0.8 +/- 0.2, P < 0.05). RMSSD/RRI peaked after HR dropped by over 90% and T-b fell by 70%. Late entrance was delineated by a decline in RMSSD/RRI while T-b continued to decrease. During arousal, HR started to increase 2 h before T-b, with a concurrent decrease in RMSSD/RRI to a new minimum. As Tb increased to a maximum during interbout arousal, HR declined, and RMSSD/RRI increased. These data suggest that activation of the parasympathetic nervous system initiates and regulates the HR decrease during entrance into hibernation and that withdrawal of parasympathetic activation initiates arousal. We conclude that cardiac parasympathetic regulation persists throughout all phases of a hibernation bout-a feature of the autonomic nervous system's regulation of hibernation that was not appreciated previously.

Automated summary

The decrease in heart rate during hibernation is a regulated fall that is mediated by increased cardiac parasympathetic activity, while the increase in heart rate during arousal is driven by the sympathetic nervous system. This study aimed to investigate the temporal information on cardiac parasympathetic regulation throughout a complete hibernation bout. The results showed that parasympathetic activation initiates and regulates the heart rate decrease during entrance into hibernation, while the withdrawal of parasympathetic activation initiates arousal.