Page 38 - JCBP-2-2

Journal of Clinical and
Basic Psychosomatics Cognitive modulation of baroreceptor afferents

Higher information processing centers also regulate the among individuals with psychopathological conditions.
recruitment of inhibitory inputs to the NST. 71,72 These For example, excessive cognitive bias toward negatively
possible mechanisms are in line with the findings of a affective stimuli impairs daily cognitive functioning and
negative relationship between baroreflex sensitivity and is implicated in various mental and behavioral disorders,
cognitive performance. 4,71,72 including anxiety and posttraumatic stress disorder. 74
73
4.1. Limitations and future directions 5. Conclusion
The present findings need to be evaluated in light of several In summary, our study is among the first to investigate
design drawbacks. First, there was no direct assessment the cognitive mechanisms underlying the influence
of baroreceptor activation in the present study. As stated of baroreceptor afferents on sensorimotor processing
above, although time-locked stimulus presentation serves under varying levels of mental workload. By employing
as the common manipulation in studies of cardiac timing ex-Gaussian modeling of RT data, we observed the effects
effects, the specific length of an IBI also influences observed of concurrent WM load on both μ and τ, while cardiac
cardiac timing effects at a trial-by-trial level. It is important timing primarily influenced μ. Our findings suggest
to incorporate direct measures of cerebral blood flow and that the top-down resources associated with WM may
beat-to-beat indices of blood pressure in future studies. change the attributes of sensorimotor processing, thereby
Relatedly, the block design in the present study prevented modulating cardiac timing effects on RT performance. Our
analyses of task performance at a trial-by-trial level. Muti-
level analysis may help to address the limitations regarding findings highlight the specificity of the neuromodulatory
baroreceptor activation and IBI lengths. effects of baroreceptor afferents on central processes in
various contexts and aid in the understanding of somatic
Next, aside from cardiac cycles, other rhythmic symptoms in various disorders.
physiological activities may also influence central
processing. For example, respiratory cycles may exert Acknowledgments
periodic constraints on cortical activation and influence We would like to thank the research team in the Applied
cardiovascular activities. Furthermore, slow-frequency
oscillations of blood pressure regulation could influence and Translational Psychophysiology Lab at ODU for their
the afferent pathways of ANS activities. Therefore, future contributions to this study.
studies will also consider other factors of embodied Funding
cognition.
None.
Third, self-report data, direct neural responses, and
eye gaze metrics during the dual-task paradigm were not Conflict of interest
obtained in this study. The brief stimulus presentation in
our study did not allow self-reporting of mental effort The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.
after each RT trial. External attention can be assessed by
eye tracking, and, as above-mentioned, the event-related Author contributions
potential component, LRP, may be used to disassociate Conceptualization: Xiao Yang
non-motor and motor stages of sensorimotor processing Formal Analysis: Fang Fang
in future studies. Investigation: Xiao Yang, Katie Heberlein, Anthony Reid,
Fourth, there was a ceiling effect on response accuracy. Dongfang Jiao
High response accuracy in the choice RT task limits the Methodology: Xiao Yang, Katie Heberlein, Anthony Reid
use of sophisticated analysis of information processing, Writing–original draft: Xiao Yang, Fang Fang
e.g., the drift-diffusion model. Writing–review & editing: Katie Heberlein, Anthony Reid,
Dongfang Jiao
Last but not least, factors such as blood pressure
status, baroreceptor sensitivity, exercise and physical Ethics approval and consent to participate
activity levels, and trait differences, e.g., impulsivity and
interoception sensitivity, may moderate cardiac cycle time The study was approved by the Institutional Review Board
effects on task performance and should be investigated at ODU on 11/17/2022 (approval code: 1979162).
in future research. These factors are linked to individual Consent for publication
differences in the magnitude of the neuromodulatory
effects of baroreceptor afferents on cognition. Thus, Informed consent was obtained from all human
our findings require replication in larger samples and participants involved in the study.

Volume 2 Issue 2 (2024) 8 https://doi.org/10.36922/jcbp.2248