Silicon heart: An easy to use interactive real-time baroreflex simulator

A simulator of the baroreflex loop is implemented as a distributed system, including independent functional units with each of them running without synchronisation and in real-time. Individual components are build from extended equations of the well established Seidel-Herzel-model. The system includes Jive small computers representing Jive independent sub-models. Each component has a computer mouse connected that allow for real-time manipulation of simulation parameters in the respective part of the model. This way, numerical values of variables, such as neurotransmitter concentrations or breathing frequency, can easily be altered by turning the associated adjusting wheel. Virtual administration of drug substances and virtual disease simulations are performed and show that the asynchronous simulation is robust enough to be used as an intuitive model to study heart rate dynamics.