Page 31 - JCBP-2-2

Journal of Clinical and

Basic Psychosomatics

ORIGINAL RESEARCH ARTICLE
Mental workload modulates the effects of

baroreceptor afferents on sensorimotor
processing

Xiao Yang *, Katie Heberlein , Anthony Reid , Dongfang Jiao , and Fang Fang 2
1
1
1
1
1 Department of Psychology, College of Sciences, Old Dominion University, Norfolk, Virginia, United
States of America
2 Department of Internal Medicine, Eastern Virginia Medical School, Norfolk, Virginia, United States
of America

Abstract

The heart–brain interaction is the main mechanism for maintaining normative
physiological processes, and its dysregulation underlies the somatic symptoms
of various mental disorders. Cortical inhibition, triggered by afferent signals from
baroreceptor activation, induces systematic variations in sensorimotor responses
within a cardiac cycle, with reaction times (RTs) slower at cardiac systole compared
to diastole (known as cardiac cycle time effects). However, recent data suggest
that baroreceptor afferents not only inhibit simple responses but also facilitate
complex sensorimotor responses during cardiac systole. The mental workload that
is implicated in complex responses may modulate the cardiac cycle time effects. The
current study aimed to examine whether concurrent mental workloads influenced
cardiac cycle time effects on sensorimotor processing. Using a dual-task paradigm,
*Corresponding author:
Xiao Yang 47 participants (32 female; age = 21.9 ± 2.1 years) performed a choice RT task and a
(x2yang@odu.edu) working memory (WM) task. Stimuli were presented during either cardiac systole or
diastole. RT data were fitted using the ex-Gaussian distribution, and the parameters,
Citation: Yang X, Heberlein K,
Reid A, Jiao D, Fang F. Mental mu and tau, were derived to indicate response speed and high-order attentional
workload modulates the effects processes, respectively. The behavioral data were submitted to 2 (WM load) × 2
of baroreceptor afferents on (cardiac timing) repeated measures analyses of variances. The results indicated
sensorimotor processing. J Clin
Basic Psychosom. 2024;2(2):2248. that RT metrics were longer during cardiac systole than diastole under the no-load
https://doi.org/10.36922/jcbp.2248 condition. However, WM load reversed the cardiac timing effects on response speed
Received: November 15, 2023 while inducing more attentional lapses. These findings suggest that concurrent WM
load influences cardiac cycle time effects on sensorimotor processing via top-down
Accepted: March 14, 2024 resources.
Published Online: April 1, 2024
Copyright: © 2024 Author(s). Keywords: Baroreceptor afferents; Cardiac timing; Mental workload; Ex-Gaussian
This is an Open-Access article
distributed under the terms of the modeling
Creative Commons Attribution
License, permitting distribution,
and reproduction in any medium,
provided the original work is
properly cited. 1. Introduction
Publisher’s Note: AccScience The heart–brain interaction is the main mechanism for maintaining normative
Publishing remains neutral with physiological processes, and its dysregulation underlies the somatic symptoms of
regard to jurisdictional claims in 1,2
published maps and institutional various mental disorders. Baroreceptors in the blood vessels play a critical role in
affiliations. the central control of cardiovascular activity. They convert changes in blood pressure

Volume 2 Issue 2 (2024) 1 https://doi.org/10.36922/jcbp.2248