Skip to main content

Main menu

  • HOME
  • CONTENT
    • Early Release
    • Featured
    • Current Issue
    • Issue Archive
    • Collections
    • Podcast
  • ALERTS
  • FOR AUTHORS
    • Information for Authors
    • Fees
    • Journal Clubs
    • eLetters
    • Submit
  • EDITORIAL BOARD
  • ABOUT
    • Overview
    • Advertise
    • For the Media
    • Rights and Permissions
    • Privacy Policy
    • Feedback
  • SUBSCRIBE

User menu

  • Log in
  • My Cart

Search

  • Advanced search
Journal of Neuroscience
  • Log in
  • My Cart
Journal of Neuroscience

Advanced Search

Submit a Manuscript
  • HOME
  • CONTENT
    • Early Release
    • Featured
    • Current Issue
    • Issue Archive
    • Collections
    • Podcast
  • ALERTS
  • FOR AUTHORS
    • Information for Authors
    • Fees
    • Journal Clubs
    • eLetters
    • Submit
  • EDITORIAL BOARD
  • ABOUT
    • Overview
    • Advertise
    • For the Media
    • Rights and Permissions
    • Privacy Policy
    • Feedback
  • SUBSCRIBE
PreviousNext
Articles, Behavioral/Cognitive

Fear from the Heart: Sensitivity to Fear Stimuli Depends on Individual Heartbeats

Sarah N. Garfinkel, Ludovico Minati, Marcus A. Gray, Anil K. Seth, Raymond J. Dolan and Hugo D. Critchley
Journal of Neuroscience 7 May 2014, 34 (19) 6573-6582; DOI: https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.3507-13.2014
Sarah N. Garfinkel
1Department of Psychiatry, Brighton and Sussex Medical School, and
2Sackler Centre for Consciousness Science, University of Sussex, Falmer BN1 9RR, United Kingdom,
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Ludovico Minati
1Department of Psychiatry, Brighton and Sussex Medical School, and
3Scientific Department, Fondazione IRCCs Instituto Neurologico Besta, 20133 Milan, Italy,
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Marcus A. Gray
4Centre for Advanced Imaging, The University of Queensland, Brisbane St Lucia QLD 4072, Australia,
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Anil K. Seth
2Sackler Centre for Consciousness Science, University of Sussex, Falmer BN1 9RR, United Kingdom,
5Department of Informatics, University of Sussex, Falmer BN1 9QJ, United Kingdom, and
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Raymond J. Dolan
6Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging, University College London, London WC1N 3BG, United Kingdom
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Hugo D. Critchley
1Department of Psychiatry, Brighton and Sussex Medical School, and
2Sackler Centre for Consciousness Science, University of Sussex, Falmer BN1 9RR, United Kingdom,
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • Article
  • Figures & Data
  • Info & Metrics
  • eLetters
  • PDF
Loading

Abstract

Cognitions and emotions can be influenced by bodily physiology. Here, we investigated whether the processing of brief fear stimuli is selectively gated by their timing in relation to individual heartbeats. Emotional and neutral faces were presented to human volunteers at cardiac systole, when ejection of blood from the heart causes arterial baroreceptors to signal centrally the strength and timing of each heartbeat, and at diastole, the period between heartbeats when baroreceptors are quiescent. Participants performed behavioral and neuroimaging tasks to determine whether these interoceptive signals influence the detection of emotional stimuli at the threshold of conscious awareness and alter judgments of emotionality of fearful and neutral faces. Our results show that fearful faces were detected more easily and were rated as more intense at systole than at diastole. Correspondingly, amygdala responses were greater to fearful faces presented at systole relative to diastole. These novel findings highlight a major channel by which short-term interoceptive fluctuations enhance perceptual and evaluative processes specifically related to the processing of fear and threat and counter the view that baroreceptor afferent signaling is always inhibitory to sensory perception.

  • amygdala
  • anxiety
  • attention
  • baroreceptor
  • emotion
  • fMRI

This article is freely available online through the J Neurosci Author Open Choice option.

View Full Text
Back to top

In this issue

The Journal of Neuroscience: 34 (19)
Journal of Neuroscience
Vol. 34, Issue 19
7 May 2014
  • Table of Contents
  • Table of Contents (PDF)
  • About the Cover
  • Index by author
  • Advertising (PDF)
  • Ed Board (PDF)
Email

Thank you for sharing this Journal of Neuroscience article.

NOTE: We request your email address only to inform the recipient that it was you who recommended this article, and that it is not junk mail. We do not retain these email addresses.

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.
Fear from the Heart: Sensitivity to Fear Stimuli Depends on Individual Heartbeats
(Your Name) has forwarded a page to you from Journal of Neuroscience
(Your Name) thought you would be interested in this article in Journal of Neuroscience.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Print
View Full Page PDF
Citation Tools
Fear from the Heart: Sensitivity to Fear Stimuli Depends on Individual Heartbeats
Sarah N. Garfinkel, Ludovico Minati, Marcus A. Gray, Anil K. Seth, Raymond J. Dolan, Hugo D. Critchley
Journal of Neuroscience 7 May 2014, 34 (19) 6573-6582; DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.3507-13.2014

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero
Respond to this article
Request Permissions
Share
Fear from the Heart: Sensitivity to Fear Stimuli Depends on Individual Heartbeats
Sarah N. Garfinkel, Ludovico Minati, Marcus A. Gray, Anil K. Seth, Raymond J. Dolan, Hugo D. Critchley
Journal of Neuroscience 7 May 2014, 34 (19) 6573-6582; DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.3507-13.2014
del.icio.us logo Digg logo Reddit logo Twitter logo Facebook logo Google logo Mendeley logo
  • Tweet Widget
  • Facebook Like
  • Google Plus One

Jump to section

  • Article
    • Abstract
    • Introduction
    • Materials and Methods
    • Results
    • Discussion
    • Footnotes
    • References
  • Figures & Data
  • Info & Metrics
  • eLetters
  • PDF

Keywords

  • amygdala
  • anxiety
  • attention
  • baroreceptor
  • emotion
  • fMRI

Responses to this article

Respond to this article

Jump to comment:

No eLetters have been published for this article.

Related Articles

Cited By...

More in this TOC Section

Articles

  • Choice Behavior Guided by Learned, But Not Innate, Taste Aversion Recruits the Orbitofrontal Cortex
  • Maturation of Spontaneous Firing Properties after Hearing Onset in Rat Auditory Nerve Fibers: Spontaneous Rates, Refractoriness, and Interfiber Correlations
  • Insulin Treatment Prevents Neuroinflammation and Neuronal Injury with Restored Neurobehavioral Function in Models of HIV/AIDS Neurodegeneration
Show more Articles

Behavioral/Cognitive

  • Signatures of Electrical Stimulation Driven Network Interactions in the Human Limbic System
  • Dissociable Neural Mechanisms Underlie the Effects of Attention on Visual Appearance and Response Bias
  • Rhythmic Entrainment Echoes in Auditory Perception
Show more Behavioral/Cognitive
  • Home
  • Alerts
  • Visit Society for Neuroscience on Facebook
  • Follow Society for Neuroscience on Twitter
  • Follow Society for Neuroscience on LinkedIn
  • Visit Society for Neuroscience on Youtube
  • Follow our RSS feeds

Content

  • Early Release
  • Current Issue
  • Issue Archive
  • Collections

Information

  • For Authors
  • For Advertisers
  • For the Media
  • For Subscribers

About

  • About the Journal
  • Editorial Board
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact
(JNeurosci logo)
(SfN logo)

Copyright © 2023 by the Society for Neuroscience.
JNeurosci Online ISSN: 1529-2401

The ideas and opinions expressed in JNeurosci do not necessarily reflect those of SfN or the JNeurosci Editorial Board. Publication of an advertisement or other product mention in JNeurosci should not be construed as an endorsement of the manufacturer’s claims. SfN does not assume any responsibility for any injury and/or damage to persons or property arising from or related to any use of any material contained in JNeurosci.