"How signals from the heart shape emotion and memory", Sarah Garfinkel

How signals from the heart shape emotion and memory

Sarah Garfinkel, University of Sussex

Cognitive and emotional processes are shaped by the dynamic integration of brain and body. A major channel of interoceptive information comes from the heart, where phasic signals are conveyed to the brain to indicate how fast and strong the heart is beating.  This talk will detail how cardiac afferent signals can interact with neuronal mechanisms to alter emotion and memory. Moreover, the interoceptive channel is disrupted in distinct ways in first episode psychosis, schizophrenia, autism and anxiety. Selective interoceptive disturbance is related to symptomatology related to dissociation, alexithymia and transdiagnostic expression of anxiety. New work on interoceptive training will demonstrate a reduction of anxiety with enhanced interoceptive precision following targeted feedback. The discrete cardiac effects on emotion and cognition have broad relevance to clinical neuroscience, with implications for peripheral treatment targets and behavioural interventions.