Project Details
Projekt
Search for cardiac and respiratory influence on time perception and rhythm reproduction
Applicant
Professorin Dr. Olga Pollatos
Subject Area
General, Cognitive and Mathematical Psychology
Term
from 2010 to 2015
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 34181293
Internal signals like one's heartbeats are centrally processed via specific pathways and both their neural representations as well as their conscious perception (interoception) provide key informafion for many cognitive and emotional processes. An important target structure serving as interface between information from bodily processes and feeling states is the insular cortex which also plays an essential role in different theoretical conceptualizations and models of time perception. Recent empirical findings propose that neural processes in the insular cortex which are related to bodily signals and feeling states might constitute a neurophysiological mechanism for the encoding of duration. Nevertheless, the exact nature of such a proposed relationship remains unclear. We aim to address this problem by use of specially designed experiments, exploiting the research expertise of the principle investigator from the field of experimental psychology in studies of interoception and processing of bodily signals. We will utilize advanced methods developed by principal investigators from the field of physics to examine synchronization and interrelation between cardiac and respiratory rhythms and cognitive tasks related to time perception and rhythm reproduction. We intend to perform both independent stimulus presentation experiments (ISPE), in which the task is given independently of bodily signals, and adjusted stimulus presentafion experiments( ASPE), in which the tasks will be adjusted to simultaneously monitored physiological signals.
DFG Programme
Research Units
Participating Persons
Professor Dr. Arkady Pikovsky; Professor Dr. Michael Rosenblum
