Anger, emotion, and arrhythmias: from brain to heart

Area of Science:

• Cardiology
• Neuroscience
• Psychophysiology

Background:

• Strong emotion and mental stress are increasingly linked to severe and fatal ventricular arrhythmias.
• The underlying mechanisms involve complex interactions between the brain and heart, but are not fully understood.
• Current research often studies central processing, autonomic nerves, and myocardial electrophysiology in isolation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To review the integrated brain-heart system in the context of ventricular arrhythmias.
• To highlight the interactive, regulatory processes involved in stress-induced cardiac events.
• To bridge disciplinary gaps in understanding the brain-heart axis and arrhythmias.

Main Methods:

• Literature review of studies on emotion, stress, and ventricular arrhythmias.
• Analysis of mechanisms at central (cortical, brain stem) and peripheral (autonomic nerves) levels.
• Examination of myocardial electrophysiology alterations due to neural and emotional input.

Main Results:

• Emotional stress and mental distress are significant contributors to serious and fatal ventricular arrhythmias.
• Mechanisms involve central neural processing, autonomic nervous system dysregulation, and altered cardiac electrophysiology.
• These components function as an integrated system with complex feedback and feedforward regulatory processes.

Conclusions:

• Viewing the brain and heart as an integrated system is crucial for understanding stress-induced arrhythmias.
• Further interdisciplinary research is needed to elucidate the complex brain-heart interactions.
• Understanding these integrated mechanisms may lead to novel therapeutic strategies for managing ventricular arrhythmias.