title: Neuroanatomical substrates for the volitional regulation of heart rate.
abstract: The control of physiological arousal can assist in the regulation of emotional state. A subset cortical and subcortical brain regions are implicated in autonomic control of bodily arousal during emotional behaviors. Here, we combined human functional neuroimaging with autonomic monitoring to identify neural mechanisms that support the volitional regulation of heart rate, a process that may be assisted by visual feedback. During functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), 15 healthy adults performed an experimental task in which they were prompted voluntarily to increase or decrease cardiovascular arousal (heart rate) during true, false, or absent visual feedback. Participants achieved appropriate changes in heart rate, without significant modulation of respiratory rate, and were overall not influenced by the presence of visual feedback. Increased activity in right amygdala, striatum and brainstem occurred when participants attempted to increase heart rate. In contrast, activation of ventrolateral prefrontal and parietal cortices occurred when attempting to decrease heart rate. Biofeedback enhanced activity within occipito-temporal cortices, but there was no significant interaction with task conditions. Activity in regions including pregenual anterior cingulate and ventral striatum reflected the magnitude of successful task performance, which was negatively related to subclinical anxiety symptoms. Measured changes in respiration correlated with posterior insula activation and heart rate, at a more lenient threshold, change correlated with insula, caudate, and midbrain activity. Our findings highlight a set of brain regions, notably ventrolateral prefrontal cortex, supporting volitional control of cardiovascular arousal. These data are relevant to understanding neural substrates supporting interaction between intentional and interoceptive states related to anxiety, with implications for biofeedback interventions, e.g., real-time fMRI, that target emotional regulation.
authors.affiliation: Clinical Imaging Sciences Centre, Brighton and Sussex Medical School, University of Sussex Brighton, UK ; Department of Psychiatry and Sackler Centre for Consciousness Science, Clinical Imaging Sciences Centre, University of Sussex Brighton, UK.
authors.forename: Catherine L
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: Jones
authors.affiliation: Clinical Imaging Sciences Centre, Brighton and Sussex Medical School, University of Sussex Brighton, UK ; IRCCS Istituto Neurologico Carlo Besta Milano, Italy.
authors.forename: Ludovico
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Minati
authors.affiliation: Clinical Imaging Sciences Centre, Brighton and Sussex Medical School, University of Sussex Brighton, UK ; Department of Psychiatry and Sackler Centre for Consciousness Science, Clinical Imaging Sciences Centre, University of Sussex Brighton, UK.
authors.forename: Yoko
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Nagai
authors.affiliation: Clinical Imaging Sciences Centre, Brighton and Sussex Medical School, University of Sussex Brighton, UK ; Department of Psychiatry and Sackler Centre for Consciousness Science, Clinical Imaging Sciences Centre, University of Sussex Brighton, UK ; Sackler Centre for Consciousness Science, University of Sussex Brighton, UK ; Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust Worthing, UK.
authors.forename: Nick
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Medford
authors.affiliation: Clinical Imaging Sciences Centre, Brighton and Sussex Medical School, University of Sussex Brighton, UK ; Department of Psychiatry and Sackler Centre for Consciousness Science, Clinical Imaging Sciences Centre, University of Sussex Brighton, UK ; Sackler Centre for Consciousness Science, University of Sussex Brighton, UK ; Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust Worthing, UK.
authors.forename: Neil A
authors.initials: NA
authors.lastname: Harrison
authors.affiliation: Gehrmann Laboratory, University of Queensland, Brisbane QLD, Australia.
authors.forename: Marcus
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gray
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Sackler Centre for Consciousness Science, Clinical Imaging Sciences Centre, University of Sussex Brighton, UK ; Sackler Centre for Consciousness Science, University of Sussex Brighton, UK ; School of Psychology, University of Sussex Brighton, UK.
authors.forename: Jamie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ward
authors.affiliation: Clinical Imaging Sciences Centre, Brighton and Sussex Medical School, University of Sussex Brighton, UK ; Department of Psychiatry and Sackler Centre for Consciousness Science, Clinical Imaging Sciences Centre, University of Sussex Brighton, UK ; Sackler Centre for Consciousness Science, University of Sussex Brighton, UK ; Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust Worthing, UK.
authors.forename: Hugo D
authors.initials: HD
authors.lastname: Critchley
keywords: autonomic; biofeedback; brain imaging; emotion; heart rate; interoception