State-dependent interoception: examining the dynamics of viscera-brain coupling in action, emotion, and self-consciousness.

forthcoming

Our heart beats, our lungs expand, our stomach contracts. Our body is filled with different rhythms that our brain is continuously listening to. Recently it has become clear just how important this connection between the internal organs (viscera) and our brain is, impacting the actions we take, the way we feel and shaping our conscious experiences. But is our brain capable of ‘tuning in to’ one of these rhythms, like changing the channel on a radio, under different circumstances? And is there a benefit to be able to flip the channel or even changing the volume? As it becomes more evident how viscera-brain coupling strongly impacts our mental health, this fundamental knowledge is key for developing novel interoceptive treatments. In INTERSTATE, I will test how viscera-brain coupling can dynamically change across three different domains: action, emotion, and self-consciousness. The project capitalizes on the strength of combining different neuroimaging techniques: Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) and Magnetoencephalography (MEG) combined with Electroencephalography (EEG), together with recordings of the rhythms of the heart, lungs, and stomach. Across two experiments I will quantify how strongly the brain is tuned in to the signals from these three organs and examine whether this coupling changes when participants are preparing to make a movement, are experiencing an affective state, or are reflecting about themselves or someone else. These findings will be linked to individually determined levels of anxiety and depression symptoms, to explore whether dynamic viscera-brain coupling is associated to variations in well-being. This will open future pathways where interventions can target specific states and organs to alleviate mental health suffering. INTERSTATE will be carried out at the Centre for Interdisciplinary Brain Research at the University of Jyväskylä, providing state-of-the-art neuroimaging facilities and the ideal multi-disciplinary environment.