Pain and Autonomics - Integrative Research, Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Philosophenweg 3, University Hospital, Jena, Germany.
Clin Neurophysiol. 2012 Oct;123(10):1950-7. doi: 10.1016/j.clinph.2012.02.086. Epub 2012 Apr 25.
Awareness of stimuli originating inside of the body (interoceptive awareness) is thought to have an impact on psychopathology. The aim of the present study was to analyze whether heartbeat perception accuracy is reduced in depressed patients. Furthermore, we investigated whether putative differences are reflected in heartbeat-evoked potentials.
We assessed the heartbeat perception score in 16 depressed patients and in matched healthy controls. A 63-channel EEG was recorded while participants counted pseudo-randomly presented target tones or heartbeats during a fixed number of cardiac cycles. ECG R-waves served as the trigger for EEG averaging. The cardiac-field artifact was minimized using independent component analysis and current-source density.
Behaviorally, the depressed sample showed less accurate heartbeat perception in comparison to the control group (p=.011). The two groups also demonstrated psychophysiological differences, showing that heartbeat-evoked potentials were significantly reduced in depressed patients.
Our results suggest that heartbeat evoked potentials are objective markers of altered bodily awareness. Reduced interoception during depression may be linked to alexithymia, as well as to both decreased capacity for decision-making and for cognitive processing.
It may be helpful to practice interoceptive awareness to improve depressive symptoms, for example by practicing meditation.
人们认为，对源自体内的刺激（内感受意识）的意识会对精神病理学产生影响。本研究的目的是分析抑郁患者的心跳感知准确性是否降低。此外，我们还研究了潜在的差异是否反映在心跳诱发的电位中。
我们评估了 16 名抑郁患者和匹配的健康对照组的心跳感知得分。当参与者在固定数量的心动周期中计数伪随机呈现的目标音或心跳时，记录了 63 通道 EEG。ECG R 波用作 EEG 平均的触发信号。使用独立成分分析和电流源密度最小化心脏场伪影。
行为上，与对照组相比，抑郁组的心跳感知准确性较低（p=.011）。两组还表现出心理生理差异，表明抑郁患者的心跳诱发电位显著降低。
我们的结果表明，心跳诱发的电位是身体意识改变的客观标志物。抑郁期间的内感受减少可能与述情障碍有关，以及决策能力和认知处理能力下降有关。
通过练习内感受意识来改善抑郁症状可能会有所帮助，例如练习冥想。
