CrossTalk opposing view: dynamic cerebral autoregulation should be quantified using induced (rather than spontaneous) blood pressure fluctuations

Suppose you want to take a car for a test drive. You prefer a smooth ride, so you are probably particularly interested in the car’s suspension system. Where do you take your car? Will you take it for a ride on a well-maintained highway, or will you select worn-down roads with cobblestones, potholes and speed bumps? The answer is clear: you can’t test the car’s suspension system if you don’t challenge it. Now imagine cerebral autoregulation (CA) as our brain’s suspension system, dampening out fluctuations in blood flow as blood pressure varies. In everyday life, ‘bumps’ in blood pressure can be caused by standing up after lying or sitting (orthostatic blood pressure changes), by exercise, emotional stress, medication or infection. The magnitude of these transient changes in blood pressure, for example during orthostatic changes, can easily reach 20% of baseline blood pressure levels (van Beek et al. 2008). Dynamic cerebral autoregulation (dCA) is the concept (or construct) that refers to