Project description
Our heart beats, our lungs expand, our stomach contracts. Our body is filled with different rhythms that our brain is continuously listening to. Recently it has become clear just how important this connection between the internal organs (viscera) and our brain is, impacting the actions we take, the way we feel and shaping our conscious experiences. But is our brain capable of ‘tuning in to’ one of these rhythms, like changing the channel on a radio, under different circumstances? And is there a benefit to be able to flip the channel or even changing the volume? As it becomes more evident how viscera-brain coupling strongly impacts our mental health, this fundamental knowledge is key for developing novel interoceptive treatments. In INTERSTATE, we test how viscera-brain coupling can dynamically change across three different domains: action, emotion, and self-consciousness. The project capitalizes on the strength of combining different neuroimaging techniques: Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) and Magnetoencephalography (MEG) combined with Electroencephalography (EEG), together with recordings of the rhythms of the heart, lungs, and stomach. INTERSTATE is funded by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship.
