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Vagal Mediated Heart Rate Variability And Cognitive Impairments In Hiv-Seropositive Women, William C. Nicholson

All ETDs from UAB

Regardless of sufficient viral suppression, HIV exerts an ongoing inflammatory process that promotes chronic autonomic nervous system (ANS) dysfunction, accelerates physiological aging, and increases the risk of developing a spectrum of cognitive disorders (known as HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders [HAND]). Given this, identifying pathological mediators of this inflammatory response could provide insight into the mechanisms driving HAND. The vagus nerve (indexed by vagal-mediated heart rate variability [vmHRV]) could provide such a mediator as it regulates ANS activity via reciprocal cardio-neural pathways, which regulate inflammation and homeostasis. Vagal dysfunction is associated with persistent inflammatory signaling (e.g., stress or inflammatory-based disorders [such as …