The influence of the gastric electrical rhythm on visual processing

• Applicant: Dr. Janina Hüer
• Subject Area: Human Cognitive and Systems Neuroscience ; Cognitive, Systems and Behavioural Neurobiology
• Term: Funded in 2021
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 455182092

Our body continuously generates rhythmic signals: the heartbeat, the breathing rhythm, or the gastric electrical rhythm. There is growing evidence that these signals are not only transmitted to the brain, but do affect cortical neuronal processing. The infra-slow gastric electrical rhythm is continuously generated in the stomach wall. It first of all serves the process of digestion by setting the pace for slow muscle contractions along the stomach. Surprisingly, in humans a new resting state network has been found, whose activity is coupled to the gastric rhythm, and which contains brain areas of multiple functions: visual, somatosensory, premotor as well as areas involved in higher cognitive and self-related processing. In addition, the power of one of the major cortical oscillations – the alpha rhythm – is dependent on the phase of the gastric rhythm during the resting state. It is not known, however, whether the gastric rhythm influences cortical processing outside the resting state. The proposed project will investigate if visual and attentional processing are dependent on the phase of the gastric rhythm. We will record brain activity with magnetoencephalography (MEG) at the same time as the gastric rhythm with electrogastrography (EGG) in human participants, while they are either exposed to passive visual stimulation or are engaged in a visual spatial attention task. We will examine the influence of the gastric rhythm on visually evoked neural responses, cortical oscillations as well as behavioral parameters. The results of this project will contribute to our understanding of if and how signals arising within our body interact with sensory and cognitive processing in the brain.

• DFG Programme: WBP Fellowship
• International Connection: France
• Host: Dr. Catherine Tallon-Baudry