A rise in heart rate is associated with an increase in anxiety-related behaviors in mice. The findings show how bodily signals might influence affective behaviors related to emotions like worry and terror.
Emotions Impact Heart Health and Vice-Versa
Emotional states have an impact on how the body operates. Anxiety and fear, for example, can cause the heart to beat more quickly. Nevertheless, whether the opposite is true – that an increase in heart rate causes anxiety or terror responses – remains unknown. One of the primary difficulties in examining the impact of heart rates on emotions was a lack of a suitable tool for accurately controlling the heart rate without creating adverse effects or introducing confounding factors.
Karl Deisseroth and colleagues created a non-invasive optical pacemaker that uses light signals to target cardiac muscle cells and can raise mice heart rates to 900 beats per minute (bpm) from 660 bpm. The researchers discovered that an optically induced elevation in heart rate increased anxiety-like behaviors and dread in mice, but only in potentially dangerous circumstances. The authors scanned the brain for changes in activity to investigate the underlying causes of this action. The posterior insular cortex, a part of the brain that receives and processes signals from all over the body, was identified as a potential mediator for the anxiety-like and apprehensive behaviors generated by elevated heart rates. Furthermore, it was discovered that inhibiting the posterior insula cortex reduced the anxiety-like behaviors caused by optical cardiac pacing.
Heart Rate Affects Emotional Behavior
“This is an unequivocal demonstration that, at least in mice, heart rate can affect anxiety, and can probably influence other emotional behaviours, too,” write Yoni Coudec and Anna Beyeler in an accompanying News & Views article. Further research is needed to determine the long-term impact of elevated heart rates on the brain and affective behaviors, as well as to investigate potential translational and therapeutic uses of these results.
Source: Medindia
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