Fusina Francesca, Marino Marco, Angrilli Alessandro
Department of General Psychology, University of Padova, Padua, Italy.
Front Neurosci. 2025 Jun 25;19:1599349. doi: 10.3389/fnins.2025.1599349. eCollection 2025.
The heart-brain connection represents an interesting innovative framework for investigating the complex and reciprocal influences between the cardiovascular system and brain activity in emotion research. The present study aimed at investigating the correlation between heart rate and connectivity within brain regions relevant for interoception and emotional regulation (i.e., the Ventral Attention Network) during ecological stimulation with validated emotional video-clips.
To this end two groups of 25 healthy female students were enrolled (mean age 22.62 ± 1.87SD), after a selection from 422 students, based on questionnaires measuring emotion dysregulation. Both the High Dysregulation (HD) and Low Dysregulation (LD) groups watched 18 validated video-clips divided in 6 different emotional categories (Erotic, Scenery, Neutral, Sadness, Compassion and Fear) while EEG from 64 electrodes and heart rate (HR) were recorded. Focusing on alpha and gamma EEG rhythms, the connectivity within the VAN network and between VAN and other five relevant networks (DAN, DMN, LN, SMN, VN) was computed and then correlated with the heart rate.
Results showed a different pattern of HR-Network-connectivity correlation in the two groups. EEG Gamma band evidenced several effects only in the HD group with significant positive HR-Network-connectivity correlations for most networks during the Sadness and Neutral movies and to a less extent for Scenery clips (all rs ≥ 0.29, < 0.05).
The consistent correlation in HD during Sadness clips points to the relevance of this emotion as a synchronizing agent coordinating cardiovascular and central cortical responses. Unlike the HD, the LD group showed, in the alpha EEG band only, a negative HR-Brain-connectivity correlation in three networks during the Erotic clips, a result that highlights a normal increased attention (bradycardic response) towards relevant biological appetitive cues, while the HD group had an opposite pattern with positive HR- Brain correlation to Erotic in the gamma band that could be explained by greater sexual issues and embarrassment to these stimuli in HD individuals.
心脑连接是一个有趣的创新框架，用于研究情绪研究中心血管系统与大脑活动之间复杂的相互影响。本研究旨在调查在使用经过验证的情感视频片段进行生态刺激期间，心率与大脑中与内感受和情绪调节相关区域（即腹侧注意网络）内的连通性之间的相关性。
为此，从422名学生中根据测量情绪失调的问卷筛选出两组各25名健康女学生（平均年龄22.62±1.87标准差）。高失调组（HD）和低失调组（LD）都观看了18个经过验证的视频片段，这些片段分为6种不同的情感类别（色情、风景、中性、悲伤、同情和恐惧），同时记录来自64个电极的脑电图和心率（HR）。聚焦于脑电图的α和γ节律，计算腹侧注意网络内以及腹侧注意网络与其他五个相关网络（背侧注意网络、默认模式网络、边缘网络、躯体运动网络、视觉网络）之间的连通性，然后将其与心率相关联。
结果显示两组中心率 - 网络 - 连通性相关性的模式不同。脑电图γ频段仅在高失调组中显示出几种效应，在悲伤和中性电影期间，大多数网络的心率 - 网络 - 连通性呈显著正相关，在风景片段中相关性较小（所有r≥0.29，<0.05）。
悲伤片段期间高失调组中一致的相关性表明这种情绪作为协调心血管和中枢皮质反应的同步剂的相关性。与高失调组不同，低失调组仅在α脑电图频段中，在色情片段期间，三个网络中显示出心率 - 脑连通性负相关，这一结果突出了对相关生物性唤起线索的正常注意力增加（心动过缓反应），而高失调组在γ频段中与色情内容的心率 - 脑相关性呈相反模式，这可以解释为高失调个体对这些刺激有更大的性问题和尴尬感。
