Programm

Peripheral bodily processes are conveyed to the brain via several mechanisms promoting psychological and behavioral adaptations. There is now a solid body of evidence indicating that both cardiac and respiratory activity influence central-nervous processes mediating perception and behavior. This symposium will cover recent research into such peripheral modulation of central-nervous processes from basic reflexes to higher order cognition and action control. André Schulz (Luxemburg) will present a series of studies demonstrating cardiac modulation of the startle reflex and how it may be employed to assess the integrity of cardioafferent traffic. Leon von Haugwitz (Dortmund) will present behavioral and EEG studies revealing that cardiac activity modulates different aspects of sensorimotor control relevant to conflict processing. Diving deeper into the neural correlates of motor control, Maria Herrojo-Ruiz (London) will provide evidence indicating that EEG alpha and beta suppression during motor imagery is influenced by the cardiac cycle. Cardiorespiratory activity may not only affect sensorimotor processes, but could also influence feelings of control that are associated with voluntary actions and their outcomes. Marta Gerosa (Berlin/Leipzig) will show how the coupling between cardiorespiratory rhythms and voluntary actions modulates this Sense of Agency. Beyond such acute effects, cardiorespiratory signals may even facilitate long-term behavioral adaptations. Miriam Nokia (Jyväskylä) will demonstrate how learning processes and their electrophysiological correlates are modulated along cardiac and respiratory cycles in studies employing eyeblink-conditioning with young and elderly samples. Together, these contributions illustrate how cardiorespiratory signals influence brain activity to change the way we perceive and interact with our environment.