CrossTalk proposal: Heart rate variability is a valid measure of cardiac autonomic responsiveness

Heart rate variability (HRV) has now been investigated for a number of decades. Different investigations linked HRV to the autonomic nervous system (ANS). Among these links, two clearly distinct facets need to be distinguished. Ongoing debate relates to HRV used as a measure of autonomic tone. Nevertheless, this is very different from the present discussion which deals with HRV used as an indicator of autonomic responsiveness, i.e. the...