The controllability of cardiac rhythm in elderly

Recent reports have shown that rare fluctuations in cardiac cycles are ‘forgotten’ quickly in healthy individuals and it is possible to quantify the “memory length” of a physiological time-series using an inverse statistical approach.
In the present study, we assessed the effect of aging on memory length in cardiac rhythm.
There was a longer memory length in cardiac time-series of elderly subjects in comparison with younger adults for both decelerating and accelerating rare fluctuations in cardiac rhythm.
The increased memory length of the cardiac time-series in elderly subjects may indicate reduced controllability of cardiovascular regulatory system.