Spatial synchronization in the human cardiovascular system

Concepts developed for the synchronization analysis of noisy coupled nonlin ear oscillators are used to study the spatial synchronization of oscillatio ns in the blood distribution system. We reveal that the cardiac and respira tory oscillations observed at different sites of the system are strongly ph ase and frequency synchronized, while the spatial synchronization of oscill ations that originate locally is weaker. The results obtained support the h ypothesis that the entire cardiovascular system is characterised by the sam e dynamics.