Huber Annika, Koenig Julian, Bruns Bastian, Bendszus Martin, Friederich Hans-Christoph, Simon Joe J
Department of General Internal Medicine and Psychosomatics, Centre for Psychosocial Medicine, University Hospital Heidelberg, Im Neuenheimer Feld 410, 69120, Heidelberg, Germany.
Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy, University Hospital Cologne, Faculty of Medicine, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany.
Sci Rep. 2025 Aug 1;15(1):28114. doi: 10.1038/s41598-025-12430-8.
Efficient brain-heart interactions, mediated by the central autonomic network (CAN), are crucial in regulating physiological and psychological stress. The ability of the autonomic nervous system to adapt to stress predicts resilience to cardiovascular, anxiety, and mood disorders. Since the neural dynamics underlying brain-heart interactions remain poorly understood, this study investigated brain activation and heart rate variability (HRV) during stress and relaxation. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and peripheral heart rate assessment were used to assess brain-heart coupling during breathing-induced relaxation, psychosocial stress and stress recovery in 32 healthy participants. We assessed the relation between perceived stress and brain activation, and employed non-linear generalized additive models to forecast changes in HR based on brain activation in the CAN. Both breathing-induced relaxation and stress induction significantly affected HR variation and triggered brain activation in CAN-related regions. HR variation was related to CAN activity during stress induction, and that chronic stress was linked to reduced brain activation during stress recovery. Finally, we demonstrated that brain activation within the CAN predicts changes in HRV. Our results offer novel insights into dynamic brain-heart interactions during stress-related autonomic regulation and emphasize the brain-heart axis's potential as a target for therapeutic interventions aimed at enhancing stress resilience.
由中枢自主神经系统（CAN）介导的高效脑-心相互作用在调节生理和心理应激方面至关重要。自主神经系统适应应激的能力预示着对心血管疾病、焦虑症和情绪障碍的恢复力。由于脑-心相互作用背后的神经动力学仍知之甚少，本研究调查了应激和放松期间的脑激活和心率变异性（HRV）。在32名健康参与者中，使用功能磁共振成像（fMRI）和外周心率评估来评估呼吸诱导的放松、心理社会应激和应激恢复期间的脑-心耦合。我们评估了感知应激与脑激活之间的关系，并采用非线性广义相加模型根据CAN中的脑激活来预测心率变化。呼吸诱导的放松和应激诱导均显著影响心率变化，并触发CAN相关区域的脑激活。应激诱导期间心率变化与CAN活动有关，慢性应激与应激恢复期间脑激活减少有关。最后，我们证明CAN内的脑激活可预测HRV的变化。我们的结果为应激相关自主调节期间的动态脑-心相互作用提供了新的见解，并强调了脑-心轴作为旨在增强应激恢复力的治疗干预目标的潜力。
