The results of a study that can end the debate regarding whether heart rate affects emotions, which has been going on for nearly a century, are attracting attention. The connection between the heart and the brain was recently discovered through optogenetics.
The National Center for Biotechnology Policy Research (herefollowing referred to as the center) published a paper titled ‘Anxiety can be created by the body, mouse heart study suggests’ published in the international journal Nature on the 7th. analyzed and published.
Previously, it has been proven that emotions such as anxiety and fear make the heart beat faster, but on the contrary, there has been no study on whether making the heart beat faster affects emotions. This study found that the opposite is also true.
According to the paper, the reason why the heart-brain correlation has been controversial for a long time is because there is no way to independently control bodily functions such as heart rate and emotions.
However, recently, optogenetics, which uses light to control cell activity, has presented an approach and basis for finding answers to scientific questions.
The research team developed a tool called a non-invasive optical pacemaker, a vest that emits red light (red micro light emitting diode, micro-LED) that can pass through the mouse’s body to the heart.
Afterwards, when a specific pulse of light was emitted through an optical pacemaker, the heart muscle was activated and the heart rate increased, and the study was conducted.
As a result of the study, when the heart rate of the mice was increased (tachycardia) with an optical pacemaker, anxiety-related behaviors increased and the posterior insula of the brain was activated. At this time, when the posterior insular lobe was deactivated, it was confirmed that anxiety was suppressed.
This suggests that increased heart rate promotes anxiety-related behaviors in mice, and that these results are achieved through activation of specific brain structures, including the posterior insular lobe.
“This study identified not only the circuits that induce anxiety behaviors, but also the neural circuits and mechanisms that allow tachycardia to activate the posterior insular lobe,” a center official said. “Another unexplored aspect, the long-term effects of tachycardia are clinically very important questions. “This study lays the groundwork for testing whether chronic elevated heart rate causes detrimental levels of anxiety in the brain.”
“From a therapeutic point of view, a means has been created to design an experiment to see if reducing the heart rate inhibits anxiety-related behaviors,” he added.