scholarly journals Development of a Classical Conditioning Task for Humans Examining Phasic Heart Rate Responses to Signaled Appetitive Stimuli: A Pilot Study

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alessandra Sayão ◽  
Heloisa Alves ◽  
Emi Furukawa ◽  
Thomas Schultz Wenk ◽  
Mauricio Cagy ◽  
...  

Cardiac responses to appetitive stimuli have been studied as indices of motivational states and attentional processes, the former being associated with cardiac acceleration and latter deceleration. Very few studies have examined heart rate changes in appetitive classical conditioning in humans. The current study describes the development and pilot testing of a classical conditioning task to assess cardiac responses to appetitive stimuli and cues that reliably precede them. Data from 18 adults were examined. They were shown initially neutral visual stimuli (putative CS) on a computer screen followed by pictures of high-caloric food (US). Phasic cardiac deceleration to food images was observed, consistent with an orienting response to motivationally significant stimuli. Similar responses were observed to non-appetitive stimuli when they were preceded by the cue associated with the food images, suggesting that attentional processes were engaged by conditioned stimuli. These autonomic changes provide significant information about classical conditioning effects in humans.

2010 ◽  
Vol 34 (6) ◽  
pp. 547-553 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jukka Leppänen ◽  
Mikko J. Peltola ◽  
Mirjami Mäntymaa ◽  
Mikko Koivuluoma ◽  
Anni Salminen ◽  
...  

To examine the ontogeny of emotion—attention interactions, we investigated whether infants exhibit adult-like biases in automatic and voluntary attentional processes towards fearful facial expressions. Heart rate and saccadic eye movements were measured from 7-month-old infants (n = 42) while viewing non-face control stimuli, and neutral, happy, and fearful facial expressions flanked after 1000 ms by a peripheral distractor. Relative to neutral and happy expressions, fearful expressions resulted in a greater cardiac deceleration response during the first 1000 ms of face-viewing and in a relatively long-lasting suppression of face-to-distractor saccades. The results suggest that the neural architecture for the integration of emotional significance with automatic attentional orienting as well as more voluntary attentional prioritization processes is present early in life.


2010 ◽  
Vol 206 (1) ◽  
pp. 127-134 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lauren B. Burhans ◽  
Carrie Smith-Bell ◽  
Bernard G. Schreurs

2013 ◽  
Vol 2013 ◽  
pp. 1-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Reuben Howden ◽  
Eva Gougian ◽  
Marcus Lawrence ◽  
Samantha Cividanes ◽  
Wesley Gladwell ◽  
...  

Nrf2protects the lung from adverse responses to oxidants, including 100% oxygen (hyperoxia) and airborne pollutants like particulate matter (PM) exposure, but the role ofNrf2on heart rate (HR) and heart rate variability (HRV) responses is not known. We hypothesized that genetic disruption ofNrf2would exacerbate murine HR and HRV responses to severe hyperoxia or moderate PM exposures.Nrf2-/-andNrf2+/+mice were instrumented for continuous ECG recording to calculate HR and HRV (low frequency (LF), high frequency (HF), and total power (TP)). Mice were then either exposed to hyperoxia for up to 72 hrs or aspirated with ultrafine PM (UF-PM). Compared to respective controls, UF-PM induced significantly greater effects on HR (P<0.001) and HF HRV (P<0.001) inNrf2-/-mice compared toNrf2+/+mice.Nrf2-/-mice tolerated hyperoxia significantly less thanNrf2+/+mice (~22 hrs;P<0.001). Reductions in HR, LF, HF, and TP HRV were also significantly greater inNrf2-/-compared toNrf2+/+mice (P<0.01). Results demonstrate thatNrf2deletion increases susceptibility to change in HR and HRV responses to environmental stressors and suggest potential therapeutic strategies to prevent cardiovascular alterations.


1966 ◽  
Vol 65 (5) ◽  
pp. 305-320 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frances K. Graham ◽  
Rachel K. Clifton

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rémy Masson ◽  
Yohana Lévêque ◽  
Geneviève Demarquay ◽  
Hesham ElShafei ◽  
Lesly Fornoni ◽  
...  

AbstractObjectivesTo evaluate alterations of top-down and/or bottom-up attention in migraine and their cortical underpinnings.Methods19 migraineurs between attacks and 19 matched control participants performed a task evaluating jointly top-down and bottom-up attention, using visually-cued target sounds and unexpected task-irrelevant distracting sounds. Behavioral responses and MEG/EEG were recorded. Event-related potentials and fields (ERPs/ERFs) were processed and source reconstruction was applied to ERFs.ResultsAt the behavioral level, neither top-down nor bottom-up attentional processes appeared to be altered in migraine. However, migraineurs presented heightened evoked responses following distracting sounds (orienting component of the N1 and Re-Orienting Negativity, RON) and following target sounds (orienting component of the N1), concomitant to an increased recruitment of the right temporo-parietal junction. They also displayed an increased effect of the cue informational value on target processing resulting in the elicitation of a negative difference (Nd).ConclusionsMigraineurs appear to display increased bottom-up orienting response to all incoming sounds, and an enhanced recruitment of top-down attention.SignificanceThe interictal state in migraine is characterized by an exacerbation of the orienting response to attended and unattended sounds. These attentional alterations might participate to the peculiar vulnerability of the migraine brain to all incoming stimuli.HighlightsMigraineurs performed as well as healthy participants in an attention task.However, EEG markers of both bottom-up and top-down attention are increased.Migraine is also associated with a facilitated recruitment of the right temporo-parietal junction.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandya Subramanian ◽  
Patrick L. Purdon ◽  
Riccardo Barbieri ◽  
Emery N. Brown

ABSTRACTDuring general anesthesia, both behavioral and autonomic changes are caused by the administration of anesthetics such as propofol. Propofol produces unconsciousness by creating highly structured oscillations in brain circuits. The anesthetic also has autonomic effects due to its actions as a vasodilator and myocardial depressant. Understanding how autonomic dynamics change in relation to propofol-induced unconsciousness is an important scientific and clinical question since anesthesiologists often infer changes in level of unconsciousness from changes in autonomic dynamics. Therefore, we present a framework combining physiology-based statistical models that have been developed specifically for heart rate variability and electrodermal activity with a robust statistical tool to compare behavioral and multimodal autonomic changes before, during, and after propofol-induced unconsciousness. We tested this framework on physiological data recorded from nine healthy volunteers during computer-controlled administration of propofol. We studied how autonomic dynamics related to behavioral markers of unconsciousness: 1) overall, 2) during the transitions of loss and recovery of consciousness, and 3) before and after anesthesia as a whole. Our results show a strong relationship between behavioral state of consciousness and autonomic dynamics. All of our prediction models showed areas under the curve greater than 0.75 despite the presence of non-monotonic relationships among the variables during the transition periods. Our analysis highlighted the specific roles played by fast versus slow changes, parasympathetic vs sympathetic activity, heart rate variability vs electrodermal activity, and even pulse rate vs pulse amplitude information within electrodermal activity. Further advancement upon this work can quantify the complex and subject-specific relationship between behavioral changes and autonomic dynamics before, during, and after anesthesia. However, this work demonstrates the potential of a multimodal, physiologically-informed, statistical approach to characterize autonomic dynamics.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Natalia Barrios ◽  
Matheus Farias ◽  
Marta A Moita

AbstractAdjusting to a dynamic environment involves fast changes in the body’s internal state, characterized by coordinated alterations in brain activity, physiological and motor responses. Threat-induced defensive states are a classic example of coordinated adjustment of bodily responses, being cardiac regulation one of the best characterized in vertebrates. A great deal is known regarding the neural basis of invertebrate defensive behaviours, mainly in Drosophila melanogaster. However, whether physiological changes accompany these remains unknown. Here, we set out to describe the internal bodily state of fruit flies upon an inescapable threat and found cardiac acceleration during running and deceleration during freezing. In addition, we found that freezing leads to increased cardiac pumping from the abdomen towards the head-thorax, suggesting mobilization of energy resources. Concordantly, threat-triggered freezing reduces sugar levels in the hemolymph and renders flies less resistant to starvation. The cardiac responses observed during freezing were absent during spontaneous immobility, underscoring the active nature of freezing response. Finally, we show that baseline cardiac activity predicts the amount of freezing upon threat. This work reveals a remarkable similarity with the cardiac responses of vertebrates, suggesting an evolutionarily convergent defensive state in flies. Our findings are at odds with the widespread view that cardiac deceleration while freezing has first evolved in vertebrates and that it is energy sparing. Investigating the physiological changes coupled to defensive behaviours in the fruit fly has revealed that freezing is costly, yet accompanied by cardiac deceleration, and points to heart activity as a key modulator of defensive behaviours.


1973 ◽  
Vol 51 (4) ◽  
pp. 249-259 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. P. Biro ◽  
J. D. Hatcher ◽  
D. B. Jennings

The participation of the aortic chemoreceptors in the reflex cardiac responses to acute hypoxia is suggested only by the indirect evidence of pharmacological stimulation of these receptors. In order to assess their role more directly, the response to a 15 min period of hypoxia was determined after surgical denervation of the aortic chemoreceptors (A.D.), and compared with the response of sham-operated (S.O.) dogs, anesthetized with morphine–pentobarbital. In the control period, while breathing room air, the cardiovascular and respiratory parameters measured in the A.D. animals were not different from those of the S.O. dogs. Hypoxia (partial pressure of oxygen approximately 30 mm Hg) in the S.O. dogs was associated with a statistically significant rise in the heart rate (+71 ± 7 min−1, mean ± S.E.M.) and of the cardiac output (+25 ± 10 ml kg−1 min−1). In the A.D. animals, the significantly smaller increment in heart rate (+29 ± 6 min−1) was associated with a fall of the cardiac output (−16 ± 12 ml kg−1 min−1). The hypoxia-induced changes in heart rate and cardiac output in the S.O. animals were different (p < 0.05) from those in the A.D. group. The minute volume of ventilation was significantly augmented in both groups, and to a comparable extent. These findings indicate that the aortic chemoreceptors play a significant role in the cardiac response to hypoxia, but they do not affect, to a significant extent, the respiratory response.


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