Skip to main content

Sympathetic Tone

Meaning

Sympathetic tone refers to the constant, low-level baseline electrical activity maintained within the sympathetic nervous system (SNS), which constitutes one essential division of the autonomic nervous system responsible for the “fight-or-flight” response. This continuous, underlying neural discharge is crucial for maintaining a state of physiological readiness and primarily dictates the resting levels of heart rate, systemic blood pressure, and peripheral vascular resistance.