RESUMO
Neuroscientists have emphasized visceral influences on consciousness and attention, but the potential neurophysiological pathways remain under exploration. Here, we found two neurophysiological pathways of heart-brain interaction based on the relationship between oxygen-transport by red blood cells (RBCs) and consciousness/attention. To this end, we collected a dataset based on the routine physical examination, the breaking continuous flash suppression (b-CFS) paradigm, and an attention network test (ANT) in 140 immigrants under the hypoxic Tibetan environment. We combined electroencephalography and multilevel mediation analysis to investigate the relationship between RBC properties and consciousness/attention. The results showed that RBC function, via two independent neurophysiological pathways, not only triggered interoceptive re-representations in the insula and awareness connected to orienting attention but also induced an immune response corresponding to consciousness and executive control. Importantly, consciousness played a fundamental role in executive function which might be associated with the level of perceived stress. These results indicated the important role of oxygen-transport in heart-brain interactions, in which the related stress response affected consciousness and executive control. The findings provide new insights into the neurophysiological schema of heart-brain interactions.
Assuntos
Humanos , Conscientização , Encéfalo , Estado de Consciência , Oxigênio , Percepção VisualRESUMO
Many studies have shown that high-altitude exposure could significantly influence human cognition, and the approaches which could enhance the human cognition in high-altitude hypoxia environment attract great attention. In the present study, we recruited a total of 60 subjects who had been migrated to Tibet University as adults for more than one year. These participants were randomly divided into the experimental group and the control group. The participants in the experimental group were instructed to complete a hyperbaric oxygen treatment, and those in the control group just completed a wait condition. By using the attention network test (ANT), the changes of the attention function before and after a single session of hyperbaric oxygen treatment were explored. The results showed that single hyperbaric oxygen treatment significantly improved the orienting function of attention, with an obvious post-intervention effect, but not the alerting and conflict function of attention. We also found a strong association between alerting function and conflict function after the end of intervention, suggesting the change of the overall performance of attention function. The present findings might suggest that the improvement of attention function by a single session of hyperbaric oxygen intervention is derived from the increase of general cognitive resources, rather than the transfer of cognitive resources within the attention system.