Examining the mechanisms that integrate cardiorespiratory interoception with active sensing

• Applicant: Dr. Michael Gaebler
• Subject Area: Biological Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience
• Term: since 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 542559580

Cognition takes place in organisms that actively engage with stimuli in their environment (active sensing). This process is supported by bodily organs within physiological systems (interoception), whose importance in modulating stimulus perception is increasingly acknowledged. For instance, while reading this abstract, the reader’s eyes move to actively obtain sensory data while activity changes in the heart and lungs affect this process. Our own results suggest that the interplay of active sensing and particularly cardiac interoception can amplify or attenuate the perception of external stimuli. The project’s main aim is to examine the mechanisms of active sensing and particularly its interplay with internal bodily signals. Specifically, we will 1) examine variations in perceptual sensitivity over cardiac and respiratory cycles - also analyzing brain activity; 2) assess the potential enhancement in perceptual sensitivity when participants actively sense stimuli; and 3) explore how inter- and intra-individual differences modulate these effects. In our project, participants will perform four variations of a self-triggered orientation categorization task using Gabor patches—a robust method for probing visual sensitivity. We will vary the difficulty of the stimulus categorization by manipulating the contrast of the Gabor patches and compare behavioral performance for stimuli that were actively sensed (i.e., where the onset was triggered with overt eye movements [UIB] or keypresses [MPI]) versus passively presented. Alongside, we will register participants’ brain, heart, and respiratory activity. The analysis will categorize the behavior and perceptual performance based on the encoding phases of stimuli within cardiac and respiratory cycles. To further elucidate the mechanisms, we will integrate inter- and intra-individual differences into the analyses: (A) we will correlate the participants' ability to perceive bodily signals (“interoceptive accuracy”) with their performance in the perceptual tasks; and (B) we will probe the impact of physiological perturbations, which increase (“cold pressor test”) or decrease (“resonant breathing”) cardiorespiratory activity, on these measures. The INTACT project will be conducted by researchers from diverse institutions and with complementary backgrounds. By linking active sensing of the external world to inner bodily processes, we adopt a holistic and ecological framework of human cognition, and hope that the findings will enrich brain-body theories of cognition, lay groundwork for future studies, and potentially lead to interventions that enhance sensory processing.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: Spain
• Partner Organisation: Agencia Estatal de Investigación
• Cooperation Partner: Dr. Alejandro Galvez Pol