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Focus of attention modulates the heartbeat evoked potential.
Journal article

Focus of attention modulates the heartbeat evoked potential.

  • Petzschner FH Translational Neuromodeling Unit (TNU), Institute for Biomedical Engineering, University of Zurich, ETH Zurich, Switzerland. Electronic address: petzschner@biomed.ee.ethz.ch.
  • Weber LA Translational Neuromodeling Unit (TNU), Institute for Biomedical Engineering, University of Zurich, ETH Zurich, Switzerland.
  • Wellstein KV Translational Neuromodeling Unit (TNU), Institute for Biomedical Engineering, University of Zurich, ETH Zurich, Switzerland.
  • Paolini G Translational Neuromodeling Unit (TNU), Institute for Biomedical Engineering, University of Zurich, ETH Zurich, Switzerland.
  • Do CT Translational Neuromodeling Unit (TNU), Institute for Biomedical Engineering, University of Zurich, ETH Zurich, Switzerland.
  • Stephan KE Translational Neuromodeling Unit (TNU), Institute for Biomedical Engineering, University of Zurich, ETH Zurich, Switzerland; Wellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging, University College London, London, UK; Max Planck Institute for Metabolism Research, Cologne, Germany.
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  • 2018-11-26
Published in:
  • NeuroImage. - 2019
Active inference
Computational psychiatry
Computational psychosomatics
Interoception
Prediction error
Predictive coding
Adult
Attention
Cerebral Cortex
Electrocardiography
Electroencephalography
Evoked Potentials
Heart Rate
Humans
Interoception
Male
Young Adult
English Theoretical frameworks such as predictive coding suggest that the perception of the body and world - interoception and exteroception - involve intertwined processes of inference, learning, and prediction. In this framework, attention is thought to gate the influence of sensory information on perception. In contrast to exteroception, there is limited evidence for purely attentional effects on interoception. Here, we empirically tested if attentional focus modulates cortical processing of single heartbeats, using a newly-developed experimental paradigm to probe purely attentional differences between exteroceptive and interoceptive conditions in the heartbeat evoked potential (HEP) using EEG recordings. We found that the HEP is significantly higher during interoceptive compared to exteroceptive attention, in a time window of 524-620 ms after the R-peak. Furthermore, this effect predicted self-report measures of autonomic system reactivity. Our study thus provides direct evidence that the HEP is modulated by pure attention and suggests that this effect may provide a clinically relevant readout for assessing interoception.
Language
  • English
Open access status
hybrid
Identifiers
Persistent URL
https://folia.unifr.ch/global/documents/181895
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