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Somatosensory perception, cardiac cycle, consciousness, EEG
Abstract:
Internal bodily states influence perceptual, affective and cognitive processes. Our group has recently provided evidence that the detection of somatosensory near-threshold stimuli increases during the late phase of the cardiac cycle (diastole). In the present study, we aim to confirm the increase in detection of somatosensory stimuli during diastole and to determine if this enhanced detection goes along with improved “objective” performance of stimulus localization. Furthermore, we investigate the neural correlates of differential somatosensory perception during the cardiac cycle in the EEG. 40 healthy volunteers (21 female), (age: 27±4 years) were tested in the experiment. Participants expected an electrical stimulus on the index or the middle finger of their left hand in every trial. After stimulation, they performed a “Yes/No Detection” and a “Two Alternative Forced Choice Localization” task. Meanwhile, ECG and EEG data were recorded from participants. We show that near-threshold electrical stimuli are more likely to be detected at later phases of the cardiac cycle whereas they are more likely to be missed at earlier phases. We find that somatosensory detection increases in diastole but we do not find an increase in localization. These variations of somatosensory perception during the cardiac cycle go along with differences in ERPs.
