Bifurcation analysis of a physiological model of the baroreceptive control

Analysis of cardiovascular signals introduced the hypothesis that the system generating and controlling them could be described by a nonlinear model whose dynamics are compatible with a chaotic deterministic system. In this paper a simple nonlinear model of the baroreceptive control of the blood pressure is analyzed through the study of its structural stability when it is periodically forced by the respiration signal. Various bifurcations of different types indicate that the dynamics of the model can be very complex. Presence of strange attractors in a physiological region of the parameters space indicates that the system is able to produce chaotic dynamics by itself and for parameters variations which are in physiological range