(Press-News.org) Healthy hearts are adaptable, and heartbeats exhibit complex variation as they adjust to tiny changes in the body and environment. Mass General Brigham researchers have applied a new way to measure the complexity of pulse rates, using data collected through wearable pulse oximetry devices. The new method, published in Journal of the American Heart Association, provides a more detailed peek into heart health than traditional measures, uncovering a link between reduced complexity and future cognitive decline.
“Heart rate complexity is a hallmark of healthy physiology,” said senior author Peng Li, PhD, of the Department of Anesthesia, Critical Care and Pain Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and the Division of Sleep and Circadian Disorders at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH), both founding members of the Mass General Brigham healthcare system. “Our hearts must balance between spontaneity and adaptability, incorporating internal needs and external stressors.”
The study used data from 503 participants (average age 82, 76% women) in the Rush Memory and Aging Project. The researchers analyzed overnight pulse rate measurements—collected by a fingertip pulse oximetry device known as the Itamar WatchPAT 300 device—and comprehensive measures of cognitive functions, collected around the same time as the pulse rate measurement and at least one annual follow-up visit up to 4.5 years later.
The team found that people with greater complexity in their heartbeats at baseline tend to experience slower cognitive decline over time. They determined that the conventional measures of heart rate variability did not predict this effect, indicating their measure was more sensitive in capturing heart functions predictive of cognitive decline.
The researchers plan to investigate whether pulse rate complexity can predict development of dementia, which would make it useful for identifying people at an early stage who might benefit from therapeutic interventions.
“The findings underscore the usefulness of our approach as a noninvasive measure for how flexible the heart is in responding to nervous system cues,” said lead author Chenlu Gao, PhD, also in the Department of Anesthesia, Critical Care and Pain Medicine at MGH. “It is suitable for future studies aimed at understanding the interplay between heart health and cognitive aging.”
Authorship: In addition to Gao and Li, Mass General Brigham authors include Shahab Haghayegh, Ruixue Cai, Lei Gao, and Kun Hu. Additional authors include Andrew S.P. Lim, Jingyun Yang, Lei Yu, Agustin Ibanez, Aron S. Buchman, and David A. Bennett.
Disclosures: Li has received a monetary gift to support research from iFutureLab, serves on the iFutureLab-HEKA Scientific Advisory Board as the Chair of Cardiac Dynamics and Honorary Life-Time Co-Founder and has received consulting fees, has received honorarium for lecturing from China Pharmaceutical University. Hu serves on the iFutureLab-HEKA Scientific Advisory Board as the Chair of Medical Biodynamics and Honorary Life-Time Co-Founder and has received consulting fees.
Funding: This work was supported by the BrightFocus Foundation (A2020886S). The Rush Memory and Aging Project is supported by NIH (R01AG17917, R01AG052488).
Paper cited: Gao C et al. “Reduced complexity of pulse rate is associated with faster cognitive decline in older adults” Journal of the American Heart Association DOI: 10.1161/JAHA.125.041448
###
About Mass General Brigham
Mass General Brigham is an integrated academic health care system, uniting great minds to solve the hardest problems in medicine for our communities and the world. Mass General Brigham connects a full continuum of care across a system of academic medical centers, community and specialty hospitals, a health insurance plan, physician networks, community health centers, home care, and long-term care services. Mass General Brigham is a nonprofit organization committed to patient care, research, teaching, and service to the community. In addition, Mass General Brigham is one of the nation’s leading biomedical research organizations with several Harvard Medical School teaching hospitals. For more information, please visit massgeneralbrigham.org.
END
Mount Sinai researchers have discovered distinct roles for two dopamine receptors located on nerve cells within the portion of the brain that controls approach vs. avoidance behavior. These receptors potentially influence anxiety and mood disorders whose origins are still unclear.
The team characterized the function of D1 and D2 dopamine receptors in the ventral hippocampus of mice, a region involved in the regulation of emotions and stress responses. Their work expands the field’s knowledge of dopamine signaling beyond its well-known actions in other brain regions that influence reward and motivation, and sets the stage ...
Imagine this: You watch your child at the playground, their eyes lighting up as they approach a group of laughing kids. But instead of welcoming them in, the children turn away. No invitation to join, no shared smiles—just an invisible barrier keeping your child on the outside looking in.
For parents, the pain of seeing their child struggle to make friends can be heartbreaking. Every parent wants their child to be included, to experience the joy of companionship, and to feel the warmth of a friendly hand reaching out to pull them into play. But what happens when social skills don’t come naturally? Where do parents turn when their child is struggling to navigate the complex ...
It has long been known that agriculture contributes to the decline in insect biodiversity. The loss of host plants, frequent mowing, and pesticide use all deprive many species of their habitats.
Now, a research team from the Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg (JMU) has discovered—using innovative analytical methods—that the impact of agricultural land use on insect diversity is even more dramatic than previously assumed. The findings are based on an analysis of insect species from 400 families collected across a wide range of habitats in Bavaria.
The study was led by Professor Jörg Müller, Chair of Conservation ...
A new study published in the journal PLOS Computational Biology reveals how foot traffic data from mobile devices can enhance neighborhood-level COVID-19 forecasts in New York City. The research, led by researchers at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and Dalian University of Technology, provides a novel approach to predicting the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus and improving targeted public health interventions during future outbreaks.
The COVID-19 pandemic hit New York City hard, with infection rates varying dramatically across neighborhoods. ...
WASHINGTON — The American Geophysical Union Board of Directors and Executive Search Committee is pleased to announce AGU’s new Executive Director and CEO will be Janice R. Lachance, J.D., Fellow of the American Society of Association Executives and the National Academy of Public Administration.
“Janice has served as an exceptional interim Executive Director and CEO during the last two years, said AGU President Brandon Jones, Ph.D. “She has demonstrated the leadership qualities ...
MINNEAPOLIS — People who eat more ultra processed foods like cold breakfast cereal, cookies and hot dogs are more likely to have early signs of Parkinson’s disease when compared to those who eat very few ultra processed foods, according to a study published in the May 7, 2025, online in Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. The study does not prove that eating more ultra processed foods causes early signs of Parkinson’s disease; it only shows an association.
Researchers looked for signs of prodromal Parkinson’s disease, which is the earliest stage, when neurodegeneration ...
MINNEAPOLIS — Obstructive sleep apnea, a condition that causes lower oxygen levels during sleep, is linked to degeneration of brain regions associated with memory through damage to the brain’s small blood vessels, according to a study published May 7, 2025, online in Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. The study found the brain changes were strongly associated with the severity of drops in oxygen levels during rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. The study does not prove that sleep apnea causes this degeneration; it only shows an association.
Obstructive sleep apnea occurs when throat muscles relax during sleep, blocking ...
WEHI scientists have uncovered a promising new way to enhance the effectiveness of vaccines by tapping into the potential of a specific type of immune cell, opening the door to long-lasting vaccines for viruses and enhanced cancer therapies.
The WEHI-led study used a novel approach combined with cutting-edge mRNA vaccine technology to increase the formation of a type of T cell which has remarkable self-renewing capacity and can remember threats for years and even decades.
The mouse-based study, published in the ...
GigaScience Press is a winner of the inaugural Crossref Metadata Awards, recognising efforts in scholarly publishing metadata completeness and enrichment in their journal, GigaByte. Thanks to River Valley Technology’s state-of-the-art publishing platform, the journal was selected amongst over the nearly 150,000 journals from 22,000 members using Crossref infrastructure for having the highest metadata completeness in the small publishers category.
Presented for the first time at the Crossref Midyear ...
What does a person with an eating disorder look like? The picture may not be as clear-cut as many people think. Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis led a groundbreaking study with an important lesson: Eating disorders don’t discriminate.
“There’s been a perception that eating disorders mostly affect thin, white women,” said Ellen Fitzsimmons-Craft, an associate professor of psychological and brain sciences. “Our study of college students dispels that myth.”
The study, funded by a National Institute of Mental Health grant, surveyed 29,951 students from 26 colleges and universities, including ...