Markers and Mechanisms of Individual Differences in Cortico-Cardiac Covariation
Final Report Abstract
Prior work suggests that cortico-cardiac covariation can be assessed by integrating stimulus-evoked EEG and phasic heart period modulation with the so-called cardio-electroencephalographic covariance tracing (CECT) technique. With CECTs a within-subject EEG-heart period correlation termed N300H was previously observed. Prior studies suggested the existence of individual differences in N300H magnitude and a relationship between N300H magnitude and state and trait anxiety as well as serotonin. In this project, two studies with healthy participants were conducted to further investigate these relationships and to characterize the psychometric properties of CECT-based markers of brain-heart covariation. Study one investigated if the N300H can be considered a reliable, valid and anxiety-related marker of brain-heart covariation. To this end, participants underwent a gambling task, a time estimation task and a threat-of-shock-oddball task at one timepoint (N=77) and again 6 months later (N=60). Supporting the robustness, reliability and validity of N300H, we found that the stimulus-evoked EEG at 300 ms was intraindividually correlated with subsequent cardiac deceleration across all three tasks (i.e. N300H), that the individual N300H magnitudes were significantly correlated between T1 and T2 and that individual N300H magnitudes were correlated across at least two different tasks. Neither the threat-of-shock manipulation nor interindividual differences in questionnaire measures, supported a link between anxiety and N300H. However, the threat-of-shock manipulation lead to relatively increased N1 and P2 amplitudes and to relative cardiac acceleration evoked by auditory stimuli. Critically, both, N1/P2 amplitudes and evoked cardiac acceleration covaried across trials as indicated by a P150H CECT component. Study 2 investigated the influence of serotonin on cortico-cardiac covariation by administering escitalopram (10mg) vs. placebo (randomized and double-blind) while participants performed the same tasks as in study 1. In preliminary analyses of N=36 (out of 60 to be collected), participants thus far showed no effects of escitalopram on brain-heart covariation. Together, results of studies 1 and 2 suggest that N300H and P150H as assessed with CECT provide robust, somewhat temporally stable measures of corticocardiac covariation which converge across different tasks. Although the results provide no evidence for a link between the magnitude of N300H and state or trait anxiety or serotonin, they do indicate that cortico-cardiac covariation captured by the P150H is of potential relevance for the interplay of early cortical and later cardiac responses to threat.
Publications
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Reliability and robustness of feedback-evoked brain-heart coupling after placebo, dopamine, and noradrenaline challenge. International Journal of Psychophysiology, 132, 298-310.
Lueckel, Maximilian; Panitz, Christian; Nater, Urs M. & Mueller, Erik M.
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Cortico-cardiac coupling in response to aversive unconditioned stimuli in anxiety disorders and healthy controls. Psychophysiology, 56, S5- S5.
Panitz, C., Unterschemmann, S. L. & Mueller, E.
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Enhanced brain-heart coupling in reaction to aversive stimuli, Psychologie und Gehirn,06/20/2019 – 06/22/2019, Dresden, Germany.
Unterschemmann, S., Panitz, C. & Mueller, E.
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Enhanced cortico-cardiac coupling under threat of electric shock. Psychophysiology, 56, S79-S79.
Unterschemmann, S. L., Panitz, C. & Mueller, E.
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Unpredictable Threat increases Early Event-Related Potential Amplitudes, Cardiac Acceleration, and Brain-Heart Coupling during an Oddball Paradigm. Psychologie und Gehirn, 06/08/2023 - 06/10/2023, Tübingen, Germany.
Gerpheide, K., Unterschemmann, S., Panitz, C., Bierwirth, P., Gross, J. J. & Mueller, E. M.
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Unpredictable threat increases early event-related potential amplitudes, cardiac acceleration, and cortico-cardiac coupling during an oddball paradigm. Annual Meeting of the Society for Psychophysiological Research, 09/27/2023 - 10/01/2023, New Orleans, USA.
Gerpheide, K., Unterschemmann, S., Panitz, C., Bierwirth, P., Gross, J. J. & Mueller, E. M.
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Anxiety increases early event-related potential amplitudes and cardiac acceleration – a brain heart coupling study. Annual Meeting of the Society for Affective Sciences, 03/01/2024 - 03/03/2024, New Orleans, USA.
Gerpheide, K., Unterschemmann, S., Panitz, C., Bierwirth, P., Gross, J. J. & Mueller, E. M.
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Brain-Heart Coupling in Response to Imminent Threat in Panic Disorder, Social Anxiety Disorder, and Healthy Controls. Center for Open Science.
Unterschemmann, Sarah-Louise; Panitz, Christian; Petereit, Pauline; Comtesse, Hannah; Sperl, Matthias F.J. & Mueller, Erik Malte
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Event-related potentials, heart period, and brain-heart responses during a threat-of-shock oddball task: Replicability and 6-month-reliability. Center for Open Science.
Gerpheide, Kathrin; Bierwirth, Philipp; Unterschemmann, Sarah-Louise; Panitz, Christian; Gross, James & Mueller, Erik Malte
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Unpredictable threat increases early event‐related potential amplitudes and cardiac acceleration: A brain–heart coupling study. Psychophysiology, 61(7).
Gerpheide, Kathrin; Unterschemmann, Sarah‐Louise; Panitz, Christian; Bierwirth, Philipp; Gross, James J. & Mueller, Erik M.
