Department of Neuroscience, Imaging and Clinical Sciences, "G. d'Annunzio" University of Chieti-Pescara, Chieti, Italy.
Institute for Advanced Biomedical Technologies-ITAB, "G. d'Annunzio" University of Chieti-Pescara, Chieti, Italy.
Psychophysiology. 2024 Dec;61(12):e14682. doi: 10.1111/psyp.14682. Epub 2024 Oct 11.
The influence of cardiac phases on cognitive and sensorimotor functions is noteworthy. Specifically, during systole, as opposed to diastole, there is an observed enhancement in tasks demanding the suppression of instructed responses. This suggests that systole contributes to inhibitory control in motor functions. However, the extent to which systolic inhibition is significant in volitional free-choice actions, such as choosing to execute or refrain from a cue-initiated response, remains to be clarified. To fill this gap in the current literature, the purpose of this study was to test whether during the systole phase, compared with the diastole phase, the tendency to enact volitional actions decreased due to the systolic inhibitory effect. We used a modified version of the Go/No-Go task with an added condition for volitional free-choice actions, where participants could decide whether to respond or not, to test whether systolic inhibition could affect the volitional decision to act. The results showed that participants' responses were less frequent in systole than in diastole in the volitional action condition. Then, to test the robustness of the cardiac effect on volitional actions, we used two established manipulations: the Straw Breathing Manipulation and the Cold Pressor Test, which were able to induce anxiety and increase the heart rate, respectively. Results showed that the systole/diastole difference in the number of volitional action trials in which participants decided to respond tended to remain the same despite all manipulations. Overall, our results provide convergent evidence for the effect of the heart on the decision to act, an effect that appears independent of manipulations of both the physiological and psychological state of the individual.
心动周期对认知和感觉运动功能的影响值得注意。具体来说，在收缩期与舒张期相比，在需要抑制指令反应的任务中观察到增强。这表明收缩期有助于运动功能的抑制控制。然而，在自主自由选择动作（例如选择执行或避免提示引发的反应）中，收缩期抑制的程度是否显著，仍有待澄清。为了填补当前文献中的这一空白，本研究旨在测试与舒张期相比，在收缩期，由于收缩期抑制作用，执行自主动作的趋势是否会减少。我们使用了改良的 Go/No-Go 任务，并增加了自主自由选择动作的条件，参与者可以决定是否做出反应，以测试收缩期抑制是否会影响自主行动的决策。结果表明，参与者在自主行动条件下的反应在收缩期比舒张期少。然后，为了测试心脏对自主动作的影响的稳健性，我们使用了两种已建立的操作： Straw Breathing 操作和 Cold Pressor Test，它们分别能够引起焦虑和增加心率。结果表明，尽管进行了所有操作，但参与者决定做出反应的自主行动试验中收缩期/舒张期的差异趋势仍然相同。总的来说，我们的结果为心脏对行动决策的影响提供了一致的证据，这种影响似乎独立于个体生理和心理状态的操作。
