Neural Responses to Heartbeats in the Default Network Encode the Self in Spontaneous Thoughts
Neural Responses to Heartbeats in the Default Network Encode the Self in Spontaneous Thoughts
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DOI：
10.1523/jneurosci.0262-16.2016
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发表时间：
2016-07-27
影响因子：
5.3
通讯作者：
Tallon-Baudry, Catherine
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Babo-Rebelo, Mariana;Richter, Craig G.;Tallon-Baudry, Catherine
默认网络（DN）一直与自我相关的认知，但也与身体状态监测和自主调节。我们假设，DN的这两个看似不同的功能角色在功能上是耦合的，这与理论提出的自我是建立在对内部器官（如心脏）的神经监测基础上的一致。我们用脑磁图测量了心跳引起的神经反应，而人类参与者自由走神。当随机间隔被视觉刺激打断时，参与者对被打断的想法的自我关联性进行评分。他们评估自己作为第一人称视角主体或代理人参与思想（“我”）的程度，以及他们在多大程度上思考自己（“我”）。在中断的想法，神经反应的两个区域的DN，腹侧楔前叶和腹内侧前额叶皮层，心脏跳动，共变，分别与“我”和“我”的尺寸的自我，即使在单一的审判水平。自我相关性和外周自主神经测量（心率，心率变异性，瞳孔直径，皮肤电活动，呼吸率和相位）或α功率之间没有协变。我们的研究结果揭示了DN中自我和对心跳的神经反应之间的直接联系，从而直接支持了在内脏输入的神经监测中建立自我的理论。更一般地说，自我相关的处理和心脏监测之间的紧密功能耦合意味着，即使在没有测量的变化，在周围的身体措施，生理和认知功能必须共同考虑在DN。
The default network (DN) has been consistently associated with self-related cognition, but also to bodily state monitoring and autonomic regulation. We hypothesized that these two seemingly disparate functional roles of the DN are functionally coupled, in line with theories proposing that selfhood is grounded in the neural monitoring of internal organs, such as the heart. We measured with magnetoencephalograhy neural responses evoked by heartbeats while human participants freely mind-wandered. When interrupted by a visual stimulus at random intervals, participants scored the self-relatedness of the interrupted thought. They evaluated their involvement as the first-person perspective subject or agent in the thought ("I"), and on another scale to what degree they were thinking about themselves ("Me"). During the interrupted thought, neural responses to heartbeats in two regions of the DN, the ventral precuneus and the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, covaried, respectively, with the "I" and the "Me" dimensions of the self, even at the single-trial level. No covariation between self-relatedness and peripheral autonomic measures (heart rate, heart rate variability, pupil diameter, electrodermal activity, respiration rate, and phase) or alpha power was observed. Our results reveal a direct link between selfhood and neural responses to heartbeats in the DN and thus directly support theories grounding selfhood in the neural monitoring of visceral inputs. More generally, the tight functional coupling between self-related processing and cardiac monitoring observed here implies that, even in the absence of measured changes in peripheral bodily measures, physiological and cognitive functions have to be considered jointly in the DN.