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Active sampling in visual search is coupled to the cardiac cycle

Galvez-Pol, A; McConnell, R; Kilner, JM; (2020) Active sampling in visual search is coupled to the cardiac cycle. Cognition , 196 , Article 104149. 10.1016/j.cognition.2019.104149. Green open access

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Abstract

Recent research has demonstrated that perception and reasoning vary according to the phase of internal bodily signals such as heartbeat. This has been shown by locking the presentation of sensory events to distinct phases of the cardiac cycle. However, task-relevant information is not usually encountered in such a phase-locked manner nor passively accessed, but rather actively sampled at one's own pace. Moreover, if the phase of the cardiac cycle is an important modulator of perception and cognition, as previously proposed, then the way in which we actively sample the world should be similarly modulated by the phase of the cardiac cycle. Here we tested this by coregistration of eye movements and heartbeat signals while participants freely compared differences between two visual arrays. Across three different analyses, we found a significant coupling of saccades, subsequent fixations, and blinks with the cardiac cycle. More eye movements were generated during the systolic phase of the cardiac cycle, which has been reported as the period of maximal effect of the baroreceptors' activity upon cognition. Conversely, more fixations were found during the diastole phase (quiescent baroreceptors). Lastly, more blinks were generated in the later period of the cardiac cycle. These results suggest that interoceptive and exteroceptive processing do adjust to each other; in our case, by sampling the outer environment during quiescent periods of the inner organism.

Type: Article
Title: Active sampling in visual search is coupled to the cardiac cycle
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2019.104149
Publisher version: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2019.104149
Language: English
Additional information: This version is the author accepted manuscript. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher’s terms and conditions.
Keywords: Interoception, Visual sampling, Saccades, Baroreceptor, Motor, Heartbeat
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology > Clinical and Movement Neurosciences
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10087732
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