Leibniz Research Centre for Working Environment and Human Factors, 44139, Dortmund, Germany.
Division of Clinical Psychophysiology, Institute of Psychobiology, University of Trier, 54290, Trier, Germany.
Sci Rep. 2020 Mar 4;10(1):4059. doi: 10.1038/s41598-020-61068-1.
Cardiac-cycle-time effects are attributed to variations in baroreceptor (BR) activity and have been shown to impinge on subcortical as well as cortical processes. However, cognitive and sensorimotor processes mediating voluntary responses seem to be differentially affected. We sought to disentangle cardiac-cycle-time effects on subcortical and cortical levels as well as sensorimotor and cognitive processes within a spatial stimulus-response-compatibility paradigm employing startling stimuli of different modalities. Air-puffs and white noise-bursts were presented unilaterally during either cardiac systole or diastole while bilateral startle EMG responses were recorded. Modality, laterality and cardiac-cycle-time were randomly varied within-subjects. Cognitive and sensorimotor stimulus-response-compatibility was orthogonally varied between-subjects: Participants (N = 80) responded to the stimuli via left/right button-push made with either the contra- or ipsilateral hand (sensorimotor compatibility) on either the ipsi- or contralateral button (cognitive compatibility). We found that sensorimotor compatible reactions were speeded during systole whereas sensorimotor incompatible ones were prolonged. This effect was independent of cognitive compatibility and restricted to auditory stimuli. Startle was inhibited during systole irrespective of modality or compatibility. Our results demonstrate how differential cardiac-cycle-time effects influence performance in conflict tasks and further suggest that stimulus-response-compatibility paradigms offer a viable method to uncover the complex interactions underlying behavioral BR effects.
心动周期时间效应归因于压力感受器（BR）活动的变化，已被证明会对皮质下和皮质过程产生影响。然而，介导自愿反应的认知和感觉运动过程似乎受到不同的影响。我们试图在空间刺激-反应相容性范式中分离心动周期时间对皮质下和皮质水平以及感觉运动和认知过程的影响，该范式使用不同模式的惊跳刺激。在单侧心动周期或舒张期期间呈现空气喷射和白噪声爆发，同时记录双侧惊跳肌电图反应。在被试内，模态、偏侧性和心动周期时间随机变化。认知和感觉运动刺激-反应相容性在被试间正交变化：参与者（N=80）通过用对侧或同侧手进行的左/右手按钮按下（感觉运动兼容性）来对刺激做出反应，分别在同侧或对侧按钮上（认知兼容性）。我们发现，在收缩期，感觉运动兼容反应加快，而感觉运动不兼容反应延长。这种效应与认知兼容性无关，仅限于听觉刺激。惊跳反应在收缩期被抑制，无论模态或兼容性如何。我们的结果表明，不同的心动周期时间效应如何影响冲突任务的表现，并进一步表明，刺激-反应相容性范式提供了一种可行的方法来揭示行为 BR 效应背后的复杂相互作用。
