Know How Your Heart may Influence Your Decision-making Circuits

Decision-making brain circuits may get altered under the influence of a racing heart through the body-state monitoring neurons.

Decision-making brain circuits may get altered under the influence of a racing heart through the body-state monitoring neurons that can hijack the process as per a study at The Mount Sinai Hospital / Mount Sinai School Of Medicine, published in PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences).

Generally, the psychiatric disorders such as anxiety, addiction, and others are often characterized by intense states of arousals such as faster heart rate, increased blood pressure, shortness of breath, and “bad” decisions.

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‘Decision-making brain circuits may get altered under the influence of a racing heart through the body-state monitoring neurons that can hijack the process. ’

The present study explored the brain’s decision-making processes through these bodily processes by analyzing the data from a previous study of non-human primates. The electrical activity was recorded from neurons in two of the brain’s decision centers called the orbitofrontal cortex and dorsal anterior cingulate cortex.

Brain Circuitry and Decision making

It was found that two of the brain’s decision-making centers contain neurons that may exclusively monitor the body’s internal dynamics. That is, the activity of about a sixth of the neurons in either area correlated with fluctuations in heart rate.

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Moreover, the rewiring of one of these centers was driven by a heightened state of arousal that turned some of the decision-making neurons into internal state monitors.

The scientists also found that turning off the brain’s emotional center – the amygdala, resulted in raised heart rates by up to 15 beats per minute. This suggests that when the animals’ arousal state was heightened, it hampered the decision-making process.

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“Our results suggest that the brain’s decision-making circuits may be wired to constantly monitor and integrate what is happening inside the body. Because of that, changes in our level of arousal can alter the way that these circuits work. We hope that these results will help researchers gain a better understanding of the brain areas and fundamental cellular processes that underlie several psychiatric disorders,” says Peter Rudebeck, Ph.D., Associate Professor in the Nash Family Department of Neuroscience and Friedman Brain Institute at Mount Sinai and the senior author of the study.

Source-Medindia

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