Significance We investigate the temporal dynamics of brain and cardiac activities in healthy subjects who underwent an emotional elicitation through videos. We demonstrate that, within the first few seconds, emotional stimuli modulate heartbeat activity, which in turn stimulates an emotion intensity (arousal)–specific cortical response. The emotional processing is then sustained by a bidirectional brain–heart interplay, where the perceived arousal level modulates the amplitude of ascending heart-to-brain neural information flow. These findings may constitute fundamental knowledge linking neurophysiology and psychiatric disorders, including the link between depressive symptoms and cardiovascular disorders.

Cardiac sympathetic-vagal activity initiates a functional brain–body response to emotional arousal

Noradrenergic modulation of rhythmic neural activity shapes selective attention

Do humans perceive the world through discrete sampling of the sensory environment? Although it contrasts starkly with the intuition of a continuous perceptual flow, this idea dates back decades when brain rhythms were first suggested to work as periodic shutters. These would gate bouts of information into conscious perception and affect behavioural responses to sensory events. Seminal experimental findings have since largely confirmed brain rhythms as the neural implementation of periodic sampling. However, novel methods, improved experimental designs, and innovative analytical approaches show that the exact roles and functional significance of rhythmic brain activity for cognition remain to be determined. In re-visiting the evidence for rhythmic sampling, the contributions to this Special Issue gave a mixed picture: Studies testing for rhythmic patterns in behavioural performance largely supported the notion. However, at odds with previous results, most attempts to link behavioural outcomes with the phase of neural rhythms did not find supporting evidence. Also, contrasting earlier results, studies that used external sensory or electrical stimulation to control neural phase ('entrainment') failed to find support for rhythmic sampling in behavioural performance despite other research, included here, that reported neural indicators of entrainment. This Special Issue therefore points out interesting divides in the study of rhythmic sampling across different domains and highlights the importance of publishing negative findings and replications to improve our understanding of the role of rhythms in cognition.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1111/ejn.15740

Rhythms in cognition: The evidence revisited

Arguably the greatest single work in the history of psychology. James's analyses of habit, the nature of emotion, the phenomenology of attention, the stream of thought, the perception of space, and the multiplicity of the consciousness of self are still widely cited and incorporated into contemporary theoretical accounts of these phenomena.

The Principles of Psychology

The effect of top–down attention on stimulus-evoked responses and alpha oscillations and the association between arousal and pupil diameter are well established. However, the relationship between these indices, and their contribution to the subjective experience of attention, remains largely unknown. Participants performed a sustained (10–30 s) attention task in which rare (10%) targets were detected within continuous tactile stimulation (16 Hz). Trials were followed by attention ratings on an 8-point visual scale. Attention ratings correlated negatively with contralateral somatosensory alpha power and positively with pupil diameter. The effect of pupil diameter on attention ratings extended into the following trial, reflecting a sustained aspect of attention related to vigilance. The effect of alpha power did not carry over to the next trial and furthermore mediated the association between pupil diameter and attention ratings. Variations in steady-state amplitude reflected stimulus processing under the influence of alpha oscillations but were only weakly related to subjective ratings of attention. Together, our results show that both alpha power and pupil diameter are reflected in the subjective experience of attention, albeit on different time spans, while continuous stimulus processing might not contribute to the experience of attention.

Neuronal correlates of the subjective experience of attention

Attention is subjectively experienced as a unified cognitive effort. This unitary experience of attention contrasts with the diversity of neural and peripheral correlates of attention. While the effects of attention on stimulus-evoked responses, alpha oscillations and pupil diameter are well-known, the relationship between these indices and the subjective experience of attention, has not yet been assessed. Participants performed a sustained (10 s to 30 s) attention task in which rare (10%) targets were detected within continuous tactile stimulation (16Hz). Trials were followed by attention ratings on an 8-point Likert scale. Steady-state evoked fields (SSSEFs) in response to tactile stimulation, as measured by magnetoencephalography, provided an objective measure of sensory processing. Beamformer source analysis of somatosensory alpha power was used as a measure of cortical excitability, while pupillometry provided a peripheral index of arousal. Attention ratings correlated negatively with contralateral somatosensory alpha power, and positively with pupil diameter. The effect of pupil diameter on attention ratings extended into the following trial, reflecting a sustained aspect of attention related to vigilance. The effect of alpha power did not carry over to the next trial, and furthermore mediated the effect of pupil diameter on attention ratings. Variation in SSSEF power reflected stimulus processing under the influence of alpha oscillations, but were not readily expressed through subjective ratings of attention. Together, our results show that both alpha power and pupil diameter are reflected in the subjective experience of attention, albeit on different time spans, while continuous stimulus processing might not be metacognitively accessible.

/pdf/distinct-neural-variables-underlie-subjective-reports-of-5blq0hmluj.pdf

Distinct neural variables underlie subjective reports of attention

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Neuronal correlates of the subjective experience of attention

Distinct neural variables underlie subjective reports of attention