Dohata Mayu, Kaneko Naotsugu, Takahashi Ryogo, Suzuki Yuya, Nakazawa Kimitaka
Department of Life Sciences, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan.
Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS), Tokyo, Japan.
Eur J Neurosci. 2025 Feb;61(4):e70021. doi: 10.1111/ejn.70021.
Interoception, the internal perception of bodily states such as heartbeat and hunger, plays a crucial role in shaping cognitive and emotional states. Since postural control affects cognitive and emotional processing, exploring postural effects on interoception could help uncover the neural mechanisms underlying its effects on cognition and emotion. In this study, we aimed to investigate how different postures affect interoception by using heartbeat-evoked potentials (HEPs), which reflect the cortical processing of cardiac signals. Two experiments were conducted; Experiment 1 involved 47 healthy male participants comparing sitting and standing postures, and Experiment 2 involved 24 healthy male participants comparing stable and unstable standing conditions. HEPs were analyzed using cluster-based permutation analysis to identify statistically significant spatiotemporal clusters. In Experiment 1, significant clusters were identified over central electrodes (Cz, C1, C2, FCz, and FC1) within the post-R-wave interval of 304-572 ms, revealing significantly lower HEP amplitudes during standing compared to sitting [W = 80, p < 0.001, r = 0.62]. In Experiment 2, HEP amplitudes were significantly lower during unstable standing compared to stable standing [t(20) = 2.9, p = 0.0099, d = 0.62]. Furthermore, we found no significant correlations between HEP changes and physiological changes such as cardiac activity and periodic and aperiodic brain activity. These findings suggest postural differences modulate interoceptive processing, with standing postures attenuating HEP amplitudes, probably because of a redistribution of attentional resources from interoceptive to somatosensory (proprioceptive) and vestibular processing, necessary for maintaining standing posture. This study provides insights into the neural mechanisms underlying posture-interoception interaction.
内感受，即对心跳和饥饿等身体状态的内部感知，在塑造认知和情绪状态方面起着至关重要的作用。由于姿势控制会影响认知和情绪加工，探索姿势对内感受的影响有助于揭示其对认知和情绪产生影响的神经机制。在本研究中，我们旨在通过使用心跳诱发电位（HEPs）来研究不同姿势如何影响内感受，心跳诱发电位反映了心脏信号的皮层加工过程。我们进行了两项实验；实验1有47名健康男性参与者，比较坐姿和站姿，实验2有24名健康男性参与者，比较稳定站立和不稳定站立状态。使用基于聚类的置换分析来分析心跳诱发电位，以识别具有统计学意义的时空聚类。在实验1中，在304 - 572毫秒的R波后间隔内，在中央电极（Cz、C1、C2、FCz和FC1）上识别出显著聚类，结果显示与坐姿相比，站姿时的心跳诱发电位振幅显著降低[W = 80，p < 0.001，r = 0.62]。在实验2中，与稳定站立相比，不稳定站立时的心跳诱发电位振幅显著降低[t(20) = 2.9，p = 0.0099，d = 0.62]。此外，我们发现心跳诱发电位变化与诸如心脏活动以及周期性和非周期性脑活动等生理变化之间没有显著相关性。这些发现表明姿势差异会调节内感受加工，站立姿势会减弱心跳诱发电位振幅，这可能是因为注意力资源从内感受重新分配到了维持站立姿势所需的躯体感觉（本体感觉）和前庭加工。本研究为姿势 - 内感受相互作用的神经机制提供了见解。
