Cardio-visual interaction

Pain is inextricably linked to the body and, in the case of chronic pain, a primary health care problem, often associated with abnormalities in the central representation of painful body parts. Recent work in cognitive neuroscience showed that altering the central representation of the body through multisensory bodily inputs such as visuotactile in the rubber hand illusion or visuomotor during mirror therapy may be of relevance for the understanding and treatment of pain

Interoceptive signals, such as the heartbeat, are processed in a network of brain regions including the insular cortex. Recent studies …

Interoceptive signals modulate visual processing during specific time-windows. Brain activity is enhanced for body images shown in synchrony with the heartbeat. Fronto-temporo-parietal areas are linked to the cardiac effect on body processing.