Do Chemoreceptors Affect Heart Rate?

The response to stimulation of chemoreceptors on the heart rate is complicated. Chemoreceptors in the heart or nearby large arteries, as well as chemoreceptors in the lungs, can affect heart rate.

Do chemoreceptors decrease heart rate?

Arterial chemoreceptor stimulation in freely breathing humans and conscious animals increases sympathetic vasoconstrictor outflow to muscle, splanchnic, and renal beds to elevate arterial pressure, and, in humans, increases cardiac sympathetic activity to increase heart rate and contractility.

What are the effects of chemoreceptors?

The central chemoreceptors are located in the brainstem and respond to changes in pH mediated primarily by carbon dioxide tension. Stimulation of central chemoreceptors by hypercapnia also elicits sympathetic and respiratory activation, but without the cardiovagal effects seen with hypoxemia.