Biology subjects

Panasiti, M. S.

Publications and source records attributed to Panasiti, M. S..

4 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2023

Deep-body feelings: ingestible pills reveal gastric correlates of emotions

Although it is generally held that gastro-intestinal (GI) signals are related to emotions, direct evidence for such a link is currently lacking. One of the reasons why the internal milieu of the GI system is poorly investigated is because visceral organs are difficult to access and monitor. To directly measure the influence of endoluminal markers of GI activity on the emotional experience, we asked a group of healthy male participants to ingest a pill that measured pH, pressure, and temperature of their GI tract while they watched video-clips that consistently induced disgust, fear, happiness, sadness, or a control neutral state. In addition to the objective physiological markers of GI activity, subjective ratings of perceived emotions and visceral (i.e. gastric, respiratory and cardiac) sensations were recorded. We found that when participants observed fearful and disgusting video-clips, they reported to perceive not only cardiac and respiratory sensations but also gastric sensations, such as nausea. Moreover, we found that there was a clear relation between the physiology of the stomach and the perceived emotions. Specifically, when disgusting video-clips were displayed, the more acidic the pH, the more participants reported feelings of disgust and fear; the less acidic the pH, the more they reported happiness. Our findings suggest that gastric signals contribute to unique emotional states and that ingestible pills may open new avenues for exploring the deep-body physiology of emotions.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2022

Reputation risk during dishonest social decision-making modulates anterior insular and cingulate cortex activity and connectivity

To explore the neural underpinnings of (dis)honest decision making under quasi-ecological conditions, we used an fMRI adapted version of a card game in which deceptive or truthful decisions are made to an opponent, with or without the risk of getting caught by them. Dishonest decisions were associated to increased activity in a cortico-subcortical circuit including the bilateral anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), anterior insula (AI), left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, supplementary motor area, and right caudate. Crucially, deceptive immoral decisions under reputation risk enhanced activity of - and functional connectivity between - the bilateral ACC and left AI, suggesting the need for heightened emotional processing and cognitive control when making immoral decisions under reputation risk. Tellingly, more manipulative individuals required less involvement of the ACC during risky self-gain lies but more involvement during other-gain truths, pointing to the need of cognitive control only when going against ones own moral code.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2022

The thermoception task: a thermal-imaging based procedure for measuring awareness of changes in peripheral body temperature

Although thermal body signals provide crucial information about the state of an organism, and changes in body temperature may be a sign of affective states (e.g., stress, pain, sexual arousal), research on thermal awareness is limited. Here we developed a task measuring awareness of changes in peripheral body temperature (thermal interoception) and compared it to the classical heartbeat counting task (cardiac interoception). With an infrared lightbulb we delivered stimuli of different temperature intensities to the right hand of 31 healthy participants. Thermal interoceptive accuracy, i.e., the difference between participants real and perceived change in hand temperature, showed good inter-individual variability. We found that thermal interoception did not correlate with (and was generally higher than) cardiac interoception, suggesting that different interceptive channels provide separate contributions to awareness of bodily states. Moreover, the results hint at the great salience of thermal signals and the need for thermoregulation in day-to-day life. Finally, thermal interoceptive accuracy was associated with self-reported awareness of body temperature changes, and with the ability to regulate distress by focusing on body sensations. Our task has the potential to significantly increase current knowledge about the role of interoception in cognition and behavior, particularly in social and emotional contexts.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2021

Gut markers of bodily self-consciousness

Bodily self-consciousness, the state of mind that allows humans to be aware of their own body, forms the backdrop for almost every human experience, yet its underpinnings remain elusive. Here we combine an ingestible, minimally invasive capsule with surface electrogastrography to probe if gut physiology correlates with bodily self-consciousness during a virtual bodily illusion. We discover that specific patterns of stomach and bowel activity (temperature, pressure, pH, and gastric peak frequency) covary with specific facets of bodily self-consciousness (feelings of body agency, location, and disembodiment). These results uncover the hitherto untapped potential of minimally invasive probes to study the link between mental and gut states, and reveal a deep visceral pathway to the self-conscious perception of ourselves as embodied beings.

physiology↗