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Interactions between visceral afferent signaling and stimulus processing

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posted on 2023-06-08, 22:07 authored by Hugo CritchleyHugo Critchley, Sarah Garfinkel
Visceral afferent signals to the brain influence thoughts, feelings and behaviour. Here we highlight the findings of a set of empirical investigations in humans concerning body-mind interaction that focus on how feedback from states of autonomic arousal shapes cognition and emotion. There is a longstanding debate regarding the contribution of the body, to mental processes. Recent theoretical models broadly acknowledge the role of (autonomically mediated) physiological arousal to emotional, social and motivational behaviours, yet the underlying mechanisms are only partially characterized. Neuroimaging is overcoming this shortfall; first, by demonstrating correlations between autonomic change and discrete patterns of evoked, and task- independent, neural activity; second, by mapping the central consequences of clinical perturbations in autonomic response and; third, by probing how dynamic fluctuations in peripheral autonomic state are integrated with perceptual, cognitive and emotional processes. Building on the notion that an important source of the brain’s representation of physiological arousal is derived from afferent information from arterial baroreceptors, we have exploited the phasic nature of these signals to show their differential contribution to the processing of emotionally-salient stimuli. This recent work highlights the facilitation at neural and behavioral levels of fear and threat processing that contrasts with the more established observations of the inhibition of central pain processing during baroreceptors activation. The implications of this body-brain-mind axis are discussed.

History

Publication status

  • Published

File Version

  • Published version

Journal

Frontiers in Neuroscience

ISSN

1662-4548

Publisher

Frontiers

Issue

286

Volume

9

Department affiliated with

  • BSMS Neuroscience Publications

Full text available

  • Yes

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Legacy Posted Date

2015-08-13

First Open Access (FOA) Date

2015-08-13

First Compliant Deposit (FCD) Date

2015-08-13

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