Oxygen Metabolism-induced Stress Response Underlies Heart-brain Interaction Governing Human Consciousness-breaking and Attention / 神经科学通报·英文版

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.

Long-term exposure to high altitude affects spatial working memory in migrants-evidence from time and frequency domain analysis / 生理学报

Long-term exposure to high altitude affects spatial working memory. Previous studies have focused on the analysis of electroencephalogram (EEG) components in time domain rather than in frequency domain. To explore the influence of long-term high altitude exposure on time dynamic characteristics and neural oscillation process of the spatial working memory, n-back task combined with the technology of event related potential recording was performed on 20 young migrants who grew at low altitude before the age of 18 and moved to high altitude more than three years ago, and 21 young people who had never been to the high altitude. EEG data were recorded, and the time domain and frequency domain analyses were performed. The results showed that the response time was longer and the accuracy rate was lower under the 2-back condition in the high altitude group compared with those in low altitude group. The late positive potential (LPP) amplitude was more negative, P2 amplitude was more positive in the 2-back condition, and the power value of early delta frequency band (1-4 Hz, 160-300 ms) was larger, while the power values of late delta frequency band (1-4 Hz, 450-650 ms) and theta frequency band (4-8 Hz, 450-650 ms) were smaller in the high altitude group compared with those in low altitude group. The results suggested that long-term exposure to high altitude affected the spatial working memory ability of the migrants, which was reflected in the lack of attention resources in the later matching stage, decreased response inhibition ability and information maintenance ability, and thus resulted in impaired spatial working memory.