Interoceptive cardiac expectations to emotional stimuli predict visual perception.

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Cognitive Science
• Psychology

Background:

• Interoception (processing internal body signals) and exteroception (processing external stimuli) are thought to be related.
• Previous research suggests a link between processing bodily signals and perceiving external events.

Purpose of the Study:

• To experimentally link visual perception with the emotional modulation of interoceptive cardiac signals.
• To investigate how repeating emotional stimuli affects cardiac responses and visual perception.

Main Methods:

• Utilized an emotion repetition-suppression paradigm with a visual detection task.
• Employed electrophysiological and cardiac measurements to record brain and heart activity.
• Manipulated facial expression repetition (neutral vs. angry) to observe effects on heartbeat evoked potential (HEP) and visual detection.

Main Results:

• Repeating facial expressions led to stable cardiac responses and modulated heartbeat evoked potential (HEP) amplitude.
• HEP amplitude decreased with repeated angry faces, predicting enhanced visual detection accuracy.
• Visual detection accuracy was higher for repeating faces compared to alternating faces.

Conclusions:

• Accurate top-down anticipation of heartbeat signals enhances external visual perception, especially with emotional stimuli.
• Demonstrates the integrated nature of internal and external sensory processing.
• Suggests predictive interoceptive processes, modulated by emotions, are crucial for conscious external perception.