Servocontrol of the heart rate in homeothermic animals: On recognizing butterfly catastrophy models in biology (Q1079521)

Drawing evidence from a variety of cardiovascular studies on the heart rate in homeothermic animals, the author establishes the following thesis: The servocontrol (i.e. the autonomic and reflex control) by the medulla oblongata of the heart (rate) is a negative feedback dynamics which is isomorphic (i.e. ''diffeomorphic'') to the dynamics underlying the heat rate control in those animals [cf. the author, ibid. 46, 81-102 (1984; Zbl 0536.92014)]. In fact, unlike in the heat rate case, the qualitative evidence supporting this thesis can not be fully complemented by quantitative data stemming from experiments, because of a lack of pertinent experiments - which, indeed, should measure simultaneously the heat rate state parameter and the four control parameters at the input side of the medulla. The results of some of the existing experiments on animal preparations can nevertheless be adduced to recognize that this dynamics can be graphed by the five-dimensional butterfly catastrophe type. The theory leads to new ways of looking at experiments in the field and/or setting up such experiments in the future.