A correlation of 0.91 has been reported between pulse pressure (PP) and the maximal first derivative of arterial pressure (AdP/dtmax) in 874 patients with heart disease. We expected this strong covariation to extend to their respective spectral components, which may indicate the sympathovagal activation elicited by the cold face test (CFT) due to similar autonomic-modulatory influences. To test these assumptions, we assessed and com-pared the effects of CFT on the time courses of AdP/dtmax and PP time series in 24 healthy volunteers, including their respective low-frequency (LFAdP/dtmax, LFPP) and high-frequency (HFAdP/dtmax, HFPP) components, computed using a time-frequency distribution. The interbeat period was also obtained. The beat-to-beat responses compared to the control were as follows: the heart rate initially decreased (p < 0.001) and continued throughout the test. Both PP and AdP/dtmax increased rapidly and maintained this increment until the end (p < 0.001). LFAdP/dtmax and LFPP initially rose quickly (p < 0.03) but then dropped toward their baseline. In contrast, HFAdP/dtmax and HFPP steadily grew until the end of CFT (p<0.007) and were higher (p<0.005) than LFAdP/dtmax and LFPP. Mean correlations and coherences between indexes are detailed in the table. We confirmed the strong correlation between PP and AdP/dtmax in healthy subjects. The close correlations and strong coherences shown by LFPP-LFAdP/dtmax and HFPP-HFAdP/dtmax indicate substantial similarities in their beat-to-beat responses, reflecting similarities in their modulatory sympathetic influences and, to a greater extent, the vagal ones. Thus, the increases in LFAdP/dtmax and LFPP time courses may indicate sympathetic acti-vation that induces an increment in PP and AdP/dtmax, while the rises in HFAdP/dtmax and HFPP may indicate prominent vagal activation that provokes heart rate deceleration. These findings suggest that PP and AdP/dtmax and their respective spectral components are valuable indicators for assessing autonomic-cardiovascular function in clinical and physiological settings.