Automated extraction of heart rate variability from magnetoencephalography signals

• Published in: Heliyon Vol. 10; no. 5; p. e26664
• Main Authors: Godwin, Ryan C., Flood, William C., Hudson, Jeremy P., Benayoun, Marc D., Zapadka, Michael E., Melvin, Ryan L., Whitlow, Christopher T.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Elsevier Ltd 15.03.2024; Elsevier
• Subjects: Artificial intelligence; Autonomic nervous system; Electrocardiogram; Heart rate variability; Machine learning; Magnetoencephalography; Magnetoencephalography; Autonomic nervous system; Heart rate variability; Artificial intelligence; Electrocardiogram; Machine learning
• ISSN: 2405-8440; 2405-8440
• DOI: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e26664

Magnetoencephalography (MEG) measures magnetic fluctuations in the brain generated by neural processes, some of which, such as cardiac signals, are generally removed as artifacts and discarded. However, heart rate variability (HRV) has long been regarded as a biomarker related to autonomic function, suggesting the cardiac signal in MEG contains valuable information that can provide supplemental health information about a patient. To enable access to these ancillary HRV data, we created an automated extraction tool capable of capturing HRV directly from raw MEG data with artificial intelligence. Five scans were conducted with simultaneous MEG and electrocardiogram (ECG) acquisition, which provides a ground truth metric for assessing our algorithms and data processing pipeline. In addition to directly comparing R-peaks between the MEG and ECG signals, this work explores the variation of the corresponding HRV output in time, frequency, and non-linear domains. After removing outlier intervals and aligning the ECG and derived cardiac MEG signals, the RMSE between the RR-intervals of each was RMSE1 = 2 ms, RMSE2 = 2 ms, RMSE3 = 8 ms, RMSE4 = 4 ms, RMSE5 = 13 ms. The findings indicate that cardiac artifacts from MEG data carry sufficient signal to approximate an individual's HRV metrics. [Display omitted] •MEG measures the magnetic fields generated by the electrical activity of neurons.•HRV is a measure of sympathetic and parasympathetic influences the sinoatrial node.•Simultaneous acquisition of MEG and ECG provides basis of HRV comparison.•HRV metrics between ECG and AI extracted cardiac signal from MEG were comparable.•The software and algorithms developed to extract HRV from MEG are freely available.