Parasympathetic arousal is associated with states of heightened attention and well-being. Arousal may affect widespread cortical and subcortical systems across the brain, however, little is known about its influence on cognitive task processing and performance. In the current study, healthy adult participants (n = 20) underwent multi-band echo-planar imaging (TR = 0.72 s) with simultaneous pulse oximetry recordings during performance of the Multi Source Interference Task (MSIT), the Oddball Task (OBT), and during rest. Processing speed on both tasks was robustly related to heart rate (HR). Participants with slower HR responded faster on both the MSIT (33% variance explained) and the OBT (25% variance explained). Within all participants, trial-to-trial fluctuations in processing speed were robustly related to the heartbeat-stimulus interval, a metric that is dependent both on the concurrent HR and the stimulus timing with respect to the heartbeat. Models examining the cardiac-BOLD response revealed that a distributed set of regions showed arousal-related activity that was distinct for different task conditions. Across these cortical regions, activity increased with slower HR. Arousal-related activity was distinct from task-evoked activity and it was robust to the inclusion of additional physiological nuisance regressors into the models. For the MSIT, such arousal-related activity occurred across visual and dorsal attention network regions. For the OBT, this activity occurred within fronto-parietal regions. For rest, arousal-related activity also occurred, but was confined to visual regions. The pulvinar nucleus of the thalamus showed arousal-related activity during all three task conditions. Widespread cortical activity, associated with increased parasympathetic arousal, may be propagated by thalamic circuits and contributes to improved attention. This activity is distinct from task-evoked activity, but affects cognitive performance and therefore should be incorporated into neurobiological models of cognition and clinical disorders.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2019.116469 | DOI Listing |
Cereb Cortex
December 2024
School of Medicine, Washington University in St. Louis, Fort Neuroscience Research Building, 4370 Duncan Ave., St. Louis, MO 63110, United States.
Arousal states are thought to influence many aspects of cognition and behavior by broadly modulating neural activity. Many studies have observed arousal-related modulations of alpha (~8 to 15 Hz) and gamma (~30 to 50 Hz) power and coherence in local field potentials across relatively small groups of brain regions. However, the global pattern of arousal-related oscillatory modulation in local field potentials is yet to be fully elucidated.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAnesthesiology
October 2024
Department of Pharmacology, School of Pharmacy, Fujian Medical University, Fuzhou, Fujian, China.
Background: Recent evidence indicates that general anesthesia and sleep-wake behavior share some overlapping neural substrates. GABAergic neurons in the central amygdala (CeA) have a high firing rate during wakefulness and play a role in regulating arousal-related behaviors. The objective of this study is to investigate whether CeA GABAergic neurons participate in the regulation of isoflurane general anesthesia and uncover the underlying neural circuitry.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPsychophysiology
December 2024
Department of Neurology, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany.
The subjective experience of emotions is linked to the contextualized perception and appraisal of changes in bodily (e.g., heart) activity.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEpilepsia Open
December 2024
Department of Neurology, University Hospital Essen, Essen, Germany.
Objective: Dissociative seizures are paroxysmal disruptions of awareness and behavioral control in the context of affective arousal. Alterations in stress-related endocrine function have been demonstrated, but the timescale of dissociation suggests that the central locus coeruleus (LC) noradrenergic system is likely pivotal. Here, we investigate whether LC activation at rest is associated with altered brain network dynamics.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPNAS Nexus
September 2024
Department of Biomedical Engineering, New York University, 433 1st Ave, New York, NY 10010, USA.
The skin conductance (SC) and eye tracking data are two potential arousal-related psychophysiological signals that can serve as the interoceptive unconditioned response to aversive stimuli (e.g. electric shocks).
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