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Decoding Anxiety: Insights from Heart-Brain Interaction

  • LIU Peibing ,
  • ZHOU Renlai
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  • 1Department of Psychology, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210023, China;
    2Department of Radiology, Nanjing Drum Tower Hospital, The Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing University Medical School, Nanjing 210008, China;
    3State Key Laboratory of Media Convergence Production Technology and Systems, Beijing 100803, China
*rlzhou@nju.edu.cn

Online published: 2025-03-20

Abstract

Anxiety is a state of heightened sensitivity to potential threats, accompanied by distress, unease, and somatic responses, affecting individuals’ lives. The interaction between the heart and brain is an important pathway for understanding the mechanisms of anxiety. The James-Lange theory of emotion, Damasio’s somatic marker hypothesis, and the neurovisceral integration model emphasize the close connection between emotions and the body, exploring how heart-brain interaction influences anxiety. The input leading to anxiety includes exogenous sensory input and endogenous psychological construction. The heart not only responds to emotions but also influences brain regions related to emotional processing through the regulation of heart rate variability (HRV). With the advancement of computational neuroscience modeling techniques, it has become increasingly feasible to empirically investigate the emergence and intervention of anxiety from the perspective of cardiocerebral interaction. Intervention strategies for anxiety can be explored along two pathways. From brain to heart, brain stimulation can regulate central neural networks associated with anxiety to implement interventions. From heart to brain, this pathway focuses on biofeedback training to enhance individuals’ ability to regulate autonomic nervous system responses, thereby positively alleviating anxiety symptoms. In the future, it is essential to integrate multimodal heart-brain data and examine the mechanisms and treatment of anxiety from a mind-body integrated perspective, providing multidimensional insights for clinical practice.

Cite this article

LIU Peibing , ZHOU Renlai . Decoding Anxiety: Insights from Heart-Brain Interaction[J]. Psychological Communications, 2024 , 7(4) : 262 -271 . DOI: 10.12100/j.issn.2096-5494.224035

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