PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

Listen to your heart: Why your brain may give away how well you know yourself

2015-04-21
(Press-News.org) In research published today in the journal Cerebral Cortex, a team of scientists led by the University of Cambridge and the Medical Research Council (MRC) Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, Cambridge, studied not only whether volunteers could be trained to follow their heartbeat, but whether it was possible to identify from brain activity how good they were at estimating their performance.

Dr Tristan Bekinschtein, a Wellcome Trust Fellow and lecturer in the Department of Psychology at the University of Cambridge, says: "'Follow your heart' has become something of a cliché, but we know that, consciously or unconsciously, there is a relationship between our heartrate and our decisions and emotions. There may well be benefits to becoming more attuned to our heartbeat, but there's very little in scientific literature about whether this is even technically possible."

A recent study from Dr Bekinschtein and colleagues showed that people with 'depersonalisation-derealisation disorder' - in which patients repeatedly feel that they are observing themselves from outside their body or have a sense that things around them are not real - perform particularly badly at listening to their heart. Another study from the team, looking at a man with two hearts - his natural, diseased heart and a replacement artificial heart - found that he was better able to tune into the artificial heart than the diseased one.

Other studies have highlighted a possible connection between heartrate and task performance. For example, in one study, volunteers given the drug propranolol to increase their heart rate performed worse at emotional tasks than the control group. Changing heartrate is part of our automatic and unconscious 'fight or flight' response - being aware of the heart's rhythm could give people more control over their behaviour, believe the researchers.

Thirty-three volunteers took part in an experiment during which scientists measured their brain activity using an electroencephalograph (EEG). First off, the volunteers were asked to tap in synchrony as they listened to a regular and then irregular heartbeat. Next, they were asked to tap out their own heartbeat in synchrony. Then, they were asked to tap out their own heartbeat whilst listening to it through a stethoscope. Finally, the stethoscopes were removed and they were once again asked to tap out their heartbeat.

During the task, when the volunteers were tapping out their heartbeat unaided, they were asked to rate their performance on a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being 'inaccurate' and 10 'extremely accurate'. Once the task was completed, they were asked how much they thought they had improved from 1 ('did not improve') to 10 ('improved a lot').

"Perhaps unsurprisingly, we found that brain activity differed between people who improved at tapping out their heartbeat and those who did not," says Andrés Canales-Johnson from the MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit. "But interestingly, brain activity also differed between people who knew whether or not they had improved and those people who under- or over-estimated their own performance."

Just over four in ten (42%) of the participants showed significant improvement in their ability to accurately tap along unaided with their heartbeat. This is most likely due to the fact that listening to their heartbeat through a stethoscope had allowed them to fine tune their attention to the otherwise faint signal of their heartbeat. In those whose performance had improved, the researchers saw a stronger brain signal known as the 'heartbeat evoked potential' (HEP) across the brain.

The researchers found no significant differences in the HEP when grouping the participants by how well they thought they had performed - their subjective performance. This suggests that the HEP provides a marker of objective performance.

In the final part of the test - after the participants had listened to their heartbeat through the stethoscope and were once again tapping unaided - the researchers found differences in brain activity between participants. Crucially, they found an increase in 'gamma phase synchrony' - coordinated 'chatter' between different regions in the brain - in only those learners whose subjective judgement of their own performance matched their actual, objective performance. In other words, this activity was seen only in learners who knew they had performed badly or knew they had improved.

"We've shown that for just under half of us, training can help us listen to our hearts, but we may not be aware of our progress," adds Dr Bekinschtein. "Some people find this task easier to do than others do. Also, some people clearly don't know how good or bad they actually are - but their brain activity gives them away.

"There are techniques such as mindfulness that teach us to be more aware of our bodies, but it will be interesting to see whether people are able to control their emotions better or to make better decisions if they are aware of how their heart is beating."

INFORMATION:

The research was supported by the Wellcome Trust and the MRC in the UK, and the Chilean National Fund for Scientific and Technological Development, the Argentinean National Research Council for Science and Technology, and the Argentinean Agency for National Scientific Promotion.



ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Dutch doctors withhold/withdraw treatment in many elderly patients

2015-04-21
Dutch doctors withhold/withdraw treatment in a substantial proportion of elderly patients, reveals research published online in the Journal of Medical Ethics. But their decisions don't seem to be driven by ageism; rather, they are more likely based on considerations of comfort and respect and the avoidance of futile treatment, conclude the researchers. In a bid to assess whether certain age groups are more likely to have treatment withheld or withdrawn, the researchers looked at a sample of deaths, stratified according to whether end of life decisions were likely or ...

UK doctors unlikely to be able to repay student loans

2015-04-21
UK doctors are unlikely to be able to repay their student loans over the course of their working lives, amassing debts of more than £80,000 by the time they graduate, in some cases, finds research published in the online journal BMJ Open. What's more, there are clear gender differences in the amount of cash required to service these debts, the analysis shows, with women paying more in interest, despite earning less than men. The researchers base their findings on the average earnings of 4286 doctors working more than 30 hours a week, who had taken part in national ...

The Lancet: Mindfulness-based therapy could offer an alternative to antidepressants for preventing depression relapse

2015-04-21
Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) could provide an alternative non-drug treatment for people who do not wish to continue long-term antidepressant treatment, suggests new research published in The Lancet. The results come from the first ever large study to compare MBCT - structured training for the mind and body which aims to change the way people think and feel about their experiences - with maintenance antidepressant medication for reducing the risk of relapse in depression. The study aimed to establish whether MBCT is superior to maintenance antidepressant ...

South-Asian women more likely to be diagnosed with later stage breast cancer: Study

2015-04-21
TORONTO, ON, April 20, 2015 -- South Asian women are more likely to be diagnosed with later stage breast cancer compared to the general population, while Chinese women are more likely to be diagnosed with early stage cancer, according to a new study by Women's College Hospital and the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES). The findings, published today in the journal Current Oncology, confirm a strong link between ethnicity and breast cancer stage at diagnosis for Canadian women. An editorial by Dr. Aisha Lofters accompanies the paper and indicates that the ...

Statin use in elderly would prevent disease but could carry considerable side effects

2015-04-21
A new study by UC San Francisco has found that statins can help prevent disease in older adults but must be weighed against potentially serious side effects. Amid a projected cost of almost $900 billion for cardiovascular disease over the next decade in the U.S., statins are used by nearly half the elderly population in the nation. But in spite of the widespread use, there has been little systematic scrutiny of the potential risks of the drugs in older adults and whether those side effects could offset cardiovascular and other health benefits. For the statin study, ...

New breast cancer screening analysis confirms biennial interval optimal for average risk women

2015-04-21
WASHINGTON -- Results from a second comprehensive analysis of mammography screening, this time using data from digital mammography, confirms findings from a 2009 analysis of film mammography: biennial (every two years) screening offers a favorable balance of benefits to harm for women ages 50 to 74 who have an average risk of developing breast cancer. A technical report of the analysis is posted on the US Preventive Services Task Force's website and is cited as one piece of evidence for its 2015 draft recommendations for breast cancer screening with mammography. The ...

A bad buzz: Men with HIV need fewer drinks to feel effects

2015-04-21
New Haven, Conn. -- Researchers at Yale and the VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System compared the number of drinks that men with HIV infection, versus those without it, needed to get a buzz. They found that HIV-infected men were more sensitive to the effects of alcohol than uninfected men. The study published April 17 in the journal AIDS and Behavior. Researchers know that HIV and alcohol can make for a dangerous mix. "Alcohol makes it more likely you're going to get HIV due to risky sexual behavior," said Dr. Amy C. Justice, professor of medicine and public health at Yale. ...

Middle-aged congenital heart disease survivors may need special care

2015-04-20
DALLAS, April 20, 2015 -- For the first time, the American Heart Association has issued recommendations for healthcare providers treating people older than 40 with congenital heart disease. "People born with congenital heart disease are living longer and fuller lives than ever before, and there are now more adults than children with congenital heart disease," said Ami Bhatt, M.D., lead author of the new scientific statement published in the American Heart Association journal Circulation. "These patients often have a sense that their heart has been 'fixed' and they don't ...

New guideline on how to treat the 1 in 10 who experience a first seizure

2015-04-20
WASHINGTON, DC - In order to help doctors treat the millions of people who experience their first seizure each year, the American Academy of Neurology and the American Epilepsy Society have released a new guideline on how to treat a first seizure. The guideline is published in the April 21, 2015, print issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology (AAN), and will be presented at the AAN Annual Meeting in Washington, DC, April 18-25, 2015, which is the world's largest gathering of neurologists. One in 10 people worldwide have a first ...

Guideline authored by University of Maryland neurologist advises when to treat a first seizure

2015-04-20
WASHINGTON, DC, APRIL 20, 2015--A new guideline released today by the American Academy of Neurology (AAN) and the American Epilepsy Society (AES) found that administering an antiepileptic medication immediately after a first seizure reduces the risk of having another seizure within two years. The guideline, authored by Allan Krumholz, MD, a professor of neurology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and physician at the Maryland Epilepsy Center at the University of Maryland Medical Center, is the first to address treatment of a first seizure in adults. A previous ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

International collaboration enabled participatory stock assessment on glass eel fisheries in West Java, Indonesia

Enhanced melanoma vaccine offers improved survival for men

Nearly one-third of patients with TBI have marginal or inadequate health literacy

Genetic causes of cerebral palsy uncovered through whole-genome sequencing

Modesty and boastfulness – perception depends on usual performance

Do sweeteners increase your appetite? New evidence from randomised controlled trial says no 

Women with obesity do not need to gain weight during pregnancy, new study suggests

Individuals with multiple sclerosis face substantially greater risk of hospitalisation and death from COVID-19, despite high rates of vaccination

Study shows obesity in childhood associated with a more than doubling of risk of developing multiple sclerosis in early adulthood

Rice Emerging Scholars Program receives $2.5M NSF grant to boost STEM education

Virtual rehabilitation provides benefits for stroke recovery

Generative AI develops potential new drugs for antibiotic-resistant bacteria

Biofuels could help island nations survive a global catastrophe, study suggests

NJIT research team discovering how fluids behave in nanopores with NSF grant

New study shows association of historical housing discrimination and shortfalls in colon cancer treatment

Social media use may help to empower plastic surgery patients

Q&A: How to train AI when you don't have enough data

Wayne State University researchers uncover potential treatment targets for Zika virus-related eye abnormalities

Discovering Van Gogh in the wild: scientists unveil a new gecko species

Small birds spice up the already diverse diet of spotted hyenas in Namibia

Imaging detects transient “hypoxic pockets” in the mouse brain

Dissolved organic matter could be used to track and improve the health of freshwaters

Indoor air quality standards in public buildings would boost health and economy, say international experts

Positive associations between premenstrual disorders and perinatal depression

New imaging method illuminates oxygen's journey in the brain

Researchers discover key gene for toxic alkaloid in barley

New approach to monitoring freshwater quality can identify sources of pollution, and predict their effects

Bidirectional link between premenstrual disorders and perinatal depression

Cell division quality control ‘stopwatch’ uncovered

Vaccine protects cattle from bovine tuberculosis, may eliminate disease

[Press-News.org] Listen to your heart: Why your brain may give away how well you know yourself