Environment and body-brain interplay affect inhibition and decision-making

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Cognitive Science
• Human Physiology

Background:

• Cognitive functions, such as inhibition, are crucial for adaptive behavior.
• Previous research has highlighted the impact of cardiac interoception on cognition.
• The role of vestibular signals in cognitive processes remains less understood.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the influence of disrupted vestibular signals on cognitive functions, specifically inhibition and decision-making.
• To determine if the relevance of bodily information to the task context modulates this influence.
• To elucidate the mechanisms underlying vestibular signal's impact on cognitive performance.

Main Methods:

• Utilized a centrifuge-based design to disrupt vestibular signals in healthy human volunteers.
• Assessed inhibition and decision-making using the standard stop-signal paradigm.
• Employed a novel sensorial version of the stop-signal task to evaluate context-dependent effects.

Main Results:

• Disrupted vestibular signals led to increased variability in inhibition latencies, indicating slower responses during difficult inhibition trials.
• Processing of bodily information, particularly in the sensorial task, exacerbated this variability when vestibular signals were compromised.
• Degraded response inhibition was partly attributed to an accelerated decision-making process, even with reduced sensory evidence.

Conclusions:

• Vestibular signals significantly influence cognitive functions, including response inhibition and decision-making.
• The impact of vestibular disruption on cognition is context-dependent, especially when processing bodily information.
• Accelerated decision-making contributes to impaired response inhibition under vestibular signal disruption.