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I wonder if it affected his mood at all. I mean is the heart pumping of anxiety or anger a symptom or part of a feedback loop?
by andrewclunn 10y ago
I wonder if it affected his mood at all. I mean is the heart pumping of anxiety or anger a symptom or part of a feedback loop?
- 0xdada 10y agoEven if it is, I assume everything that comes with knowing you don't have a heart is too much of a factor for this to be measured/evaluated.
- metaphor 10y agoWhat is the feedback loop that regulates the artificial heart's pump rate, assuming it exists at all?
- c-slice 10y agoThere isn't any. The vagus nerve helps regulate heart rate, but artificial hearts don't change their pump rate to internal factors.
- jamesblonde 10y agoNot true. The Carmat heart increases and decreases pulse rate in response to changed hormone (or some other biomarker) levels
- ars 10y agoIt's the body telling the heart "Pump more, we need extra oxygen". Not having a heart doesn't change his mood, his mood changes the heartbeat. That's why there were so surprised he could play sports - without that acceleration he might not have enough bloodflow for his activities. I wonder if it has a knob to manually adjust the flowrate. Or maybe since it's mechanical it's fine for it to run at max at all times? That might not be good for the rest of the vascular system though. If that's bad for the vascular system then an idea would be to measure O2 saturation in the toes, and adjust the flow if it gets low.
- ZeroGravitas 10y agoI would guess so because beta-blockers are also prescribed for anxiety as well as various heart conditions, and breaking the feedback loop is the intended effect. I'd imagine therefore that you'd be a bit less anxious as a result.