[Article] Attention to cardiac sensations enhances the heartbeat-evoked potential during exhalation

Summary: They recently found higher HEP amplitude during exhalation than during inhalation during a task that involved attention to cardiac sensations. This may have been due to reduced cardiac perception during inhalation and heightened perception during exhalation, mediated by attentional mechanisms. To investigate relationships between HEP, attention, and respiration, they introduced an experimental setup that included tasks related to cardiac and respiratory interoceptive and exteroceptive attention. Results revealed HEP amplitude increases during the interoceptive tasks over fronto-central electrodes. When respiratory phases were taken into account, HEP increases were primarily driven by heartbeats recorded during exhalation, specifically during the cardiac interoceptive task, while inhalation had minimal impact. Zaccaro, Andrea, et al. “Attention to cardiac sensations enhances the heartbeat-evoked potential during exhalation.” Iscience 27.4 (2024).