Claude Bernard and the heart–brain connection: Further elaboration of a model of neurovisceral integration (original) (raw)
Related papers
Heart-Brain Neurodynamics: The Making of Emotions
Emotions are... the function where mind and body most closely and mysteriously interact.-Ronald de Sousa, The Rationality of Emotion A s pervasive and vital as they are in human experience, emotions have long remained an enigma to science. This monograph explores recent scientific advances that clarify central controversies in the study of emotion, including the relationship between intellect and emotion, and the historical debate on the source of emotional experience. Particular attention is given to the intriguing body of research illuminating the critical role of ascending input from the body to the brain in the generation and perception of emotions. This discussion culminates in the presentation of a systems-oriented model of emotion in which the brain functions as a complex pattern-matching system, continually processing input from both the external and internal environments. From this perspective it is shown that the heart is a key component of the emotional system, thus providing a physiological basis for the long-acknowledged link between the heart and our emotional life.
Heart-Brain Neurodynamics: The Making of Emotion
The neuropsychotherapist, 2014
Emotions are... the function where mind and body most closely and mysteriously interact.-Ronald de Sousa, The Rationality of Emotion A s pervasive and vital as they are in human experience, emotions have long remained an enigma to science. This monograph explores recent scientific advances that clarify central controversies in the study of emotion, including the relationship between intellect and emotion, and the historical debate on the source of emotional experience. Particular attention is given to the intriguing body of research illuminating the critical role of ascending input from the body to the brain in the generation and perception of emotions. This discussion culminates in the presentation of a systems-oriented model of emotion in which the brain functions as a complex pattern-matching system, continually processing input from both the external and internal environments. From this perspective it is shown that the heart is a key component of the emotional system, thus providing a physiological basis for the long-acknowledged link between the heart and our emotional life.
The Journal of Physiology, 2000
Exercise, mental effort and emotional states are accompanied by reproducible changes in peripheral cardiovascular function affecting regional and systemic perfusion. The sympathetic and parasympathetic axes of the autonomic nervous system act to produce these integrated cardiovascular response patterns necessary for the metabolic support of behaviour, and are controlled directly by central autonomic nuclei within the brainstem and cerebellum. These autonomic regions receive afferent inputs from cortical and subcortical systems implicated in emotional and volitional behaviours. Peripheral autonomic responses may be an integral component of learning within cortical and subcortical systems (apparent in classical fear conditioning), and feedback of such responses may also influence emotional behaviour and decision making (Damasio et al. 1991). There is, as yet, only limited understanding of how 'higher' brain areas control and represent altered peripheral autonomic states in humans. Studies in experimental animals have helped to identify components of the 'central autonomic network' and have enhanced our understanding of the functional relationships between cortical and subcortical centres in cardiovascular control (reviewed in Cechetto & Saper, 1990; Bennarroch, 1997). Changes in heart rate and blood pressure have been reported to result from electrical or chemical stimulation of
Neuroanatomical substrates for the volitional regulation of heart rate
Frontiers in psychology, 2015
The control of physiological arousal can assist in the regulation of emotional state. A subset cortical and subcortical brain regions are implicated in autonomic control of bodily arousal during emotional behaviors. Here, we combined human functional neuroimaging with autonomic monitoring to identify neural mechanisms that support the volitional regulation of heart rate, a process that may be assisted by visual feedback. During functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), 15 healthy adults performed an experimental task in which they were prompted voluntarily to increase or decrease cardiovascular arousal (heart rate) during true, false, or absent visual feedback. Participants achieved appropriate changes in heart rate, without significant modulation of respiratory rate, and were overall not influenced by the presence of visual feedback. Increased activity in right amygdala, striatum and brainstem occurred when participants attempted to increase heart rate. In contrast, activation ...
Following One's Heart: Cardiac Rhythms Gate Central Initiation of Sympathetic Reflexes
Journal of Neuroscience, 2009
Central nervous processing of environmental stimuli requires integration of sensory information with ongoing autonomic control of cardiovascular function. Rhythmic feedback of cardiac and baroreceptor activity contributes dynamically to homeostatic autonomic control. We examined how the processing of brief somatosensory stimuli is altered across the cardiac cycle to evoke differential changes in bodily state. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging of brain and noninvasive beat-to-beat cardiovascular monitoring, we show that stimuli presented before and during early cardiac systole elicited differential changes in neural activity within amygdala, anterior insula and pons, and engendered different effects on blood pressure. Stimulation delivered during early systole inhibited blood pressure increases. Individual differences in heart rate variability predicted magnitude of differential cardiac timing responses within periaqueductal gray, amygdala and insula. Our findings highlight integration of somatosensory and phasic baroreceptor information at cortical, limbic and brainstem levels, with relevance to mechanisms underlying pain control, hypertension and anxiety.
Neurovisceral integration, emotions and health: An update
International Congress Series, 2006
In the present paper we describe a model of neurovisceral integration in which a set of neural structures involved in cognitive, affective and autonomic regulation are related to heart rate variability (HRV) and health. We show that autonomic imbalance is associated with increased morbidity and mortality. We also provide evidence that this autonomic imbalance can be indexed by HRV. We then provide pharmacological and neuroimaging data in support of the neural structures linking the central nervous system to HRV. Next, in an experiment investigating emotional regulation we showed that resting levels of HRV were related to emotion modulated startle responses such that those with higher HRV produced context appropriate responses compared with those with low HRV. We then show that stimuli presented outside of conscious awareness lead to potentiated startle responses and undifferentiated phasic HR responses. These results suggest that the prefrontal cortex may modulate responses to threat via a top-down regulation of sympathoexcitatory circuits. We propose that these findings have important implications for the understanding of the two-way communication between the heart and the brain, and provide a connection among negative emotions and negative health consequences via the common mechanism of autonomic imbalance and low parasympathetic activity.
Brain, 2006
Ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPFC) lesions can alter emotional and autonomic responses. In animals, VMPFC activation results in cardiovascular sympathetic inhibition. In humans, VMPFC modulates emotional processing and autonomic response to arousal (e.g. accompanying decision-making). The specific role of the left or right VMPFC in mediating somatic responses to non-arousing, daily-life pleasant or unpleasant stimuli is unclear. To further evaluate VMPFC interaction with autonomic processing of non-stressful emotional stimuli and assess the effects of stimulus valence, we studied patients with unilateral VMPFC lesions and assessed autonomic modulation at rest and during physical challenge, and heart rate (HR) and blood pressure (BP) responses to non-stressful neutral, pleasant and unpleasant visual stimulation (VES) via emotionally laden slides. In 6 patients (54.0 6 7.2 years) with left-sided VMPFC lesions (VMPFC-L), 7 patients (43.3 6 11.6 years) with right-sided VMPFC lesions (VMPFC-R) and 13 healthy volunteers (44.7 6 11.6 years), we monitored HR as R-R interval (RRI), BP, respiration, end-tidal carbon dioxide levels, and oxygen saturation at rest, during autonomic challenge by metronomic breathing, a Valsalva manoeuvre and active standing, and in response to non-stressful pleasant, unpleasant and neutral VES. Pleasantness versus unpleasantness of slides was rated on a 7-point Likert scale. At rest, during physical autonomic challenge, and during neutral VES, parameters did not differ between the patient groups and volunteers. During VES, Likert scores also were similar across the three groups. During pleasant and unpleasant VES, HR decreased (i.e. RRI increased) significantly whereas BP remained unchanged in volunteers. In VMPFC-L patients, HR decrease was insignificant with pleasant and unpleasant VES. BPslightly increased (P = 0.06) with pleasant VES but was stable with unpleasant VES. In contrast, VMPFC-R patients had significant increases in HR and BP during pleasant and not quite significant HR increases (P = 0.06) with only slight BP increase during unpleasant VES. Other biosignals remained unchanged during VES in all groups. Our results show that VMPFC has no major influence on autonomic modulation at rest and during non-emotional, physical stimulation. The paradoxical HR and BP responses in VMPFC-R patients suggest hemispheric specialization for VMPFC interaction with predominant parasympathetic activation by the left, but sympathetic inhibition by the right VMPFC. Valence of non-stressful stimuli has a limited effect with more prominent left VMPFC modulation of pleasant and more right VMPFC modulation of unpleasant stimuli. The paradoxical sympathetic disinhibition in VMPFC-R patients may increase their risk of sympathetic hyperexcitability with negative consequences such as anxiety, hypertension or cardiac arrhythmias.