Cardiac phase modulates behavior and response related lateralization in visual spatial conflicts during change...

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Psychology
• Cardiology

Background:

• The brain and heart communicate bidirectionally, influencing cognition.
• How heart signals integrate with attentional selection is not fully understood.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the interaction between cardiac afferent signals and attentional selection.
• To determine if cardiovascular responses modulate cardiac-phase effects on perception.

Main Methods:

• A change detection task synchronized with the cardiac cycle.
• Participants experienced perceptual conflicts and were exposed to cold pressor tests (CPT) or a warm water control.
• Electroencephalography (EEG) was used to measure brain activity.

Main Results:

• Cardiac phase modulated change detection, increasing errors during spatial conflicts and misses for isolated changes.
• EEG data suggested altered premotor response encoding, not early sensory gating.
• Individual differences in heart rate response to CPT and blood pressure interacted with cardiac-phase effects.

Conclusions:

• Phasic bodily signals can bias visuomotor selection during perceptual tasks.
• Cardiac signals influence attention and perceptual decision-making, particularly in conflict scenarios.
• Cardiovascular state, especially individual responses to stress, modulates the impact of cardiac phase on cognition.