Geophysical Variables and Behavior: Ciii. Days with Sudden Infant Deaths and Cardiac Arrhythmias in Adults Share a Factor with PC1 Geomagnetic Pulsations: Implications for Pursuing Mechanism

Abstract

If geomagnetic-mediated stimuli trigger many sudden infant deaths, then the days in which they and hospital admissions for cardiac arrhythmias for adults occur should share a similar source of variance. Factor analyses of the days in which a sudden infant death occurred in Ontario or adults were admitted for one of eight categories of cardiac crisis in the Sudbury (Ontario) Region for the year 1984 supported the hypothesis. This factor, with which infant deaths and adult cardiac arrhythmias each shared about 40% of their variance, also shared about 40% of the variance with a factor with which about 35% of the variance in daily occurrence of geomagnetic pulsations (0.2 Hz to 5 Hz) was associated. These results are consistent with the important role of geomagnetic variables in the occurrence of transient electrical anomalies in brain function rather than cardiac blood flow.