ArticleHuman brain mapping2013
Direct stimulation of the autonomic nervous system modulates activity of the brain at rest and when engaged in a cognitive task.
Article in Human brain mapping, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
12 citing papers in PubMed, 24 citations in OpenAlex.
- Distinct Brain Systems Support Afferent and Efferent Autonomic Activity.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Distinct brain systems support afferent and efferent autonomic activity.Social cognitive and affective neuroscience · 2026Article
- Investigating the effects of artificial baroreflex stimulation on pain perception: A comparative study in no-pain and chronic low back pain individuals.The Journal of physiology · 2024Article
- Sympathetic and parasympathetic central autonomic networks.Imaging neuroscience (Cambridge, Mass.) · 2024Article
- Beyond MRI: on the scientific value of combining non-human primate neuroimaging with metadata.NeuroImage · 2021Article
- Baroreceptor Modulation of the Cardiovascular System, Pain, Consciousness, and Cognition.Comprehensive Physiology · 2021Article
- Uncovering complex central autonomic networks at rest: a functional magnetic resonance imaging study on complex cardiovascular oscillations.Journal of the Royal Society, Interface · 2020Article
- Methods for cleaning the BOLD fMRI signal.NeuroImage · 2017Review
- Combining electroencephalographic activity and instantaneous heart rate for assessing brain-heart dynamics during visual emotional elicitation in healthy subjects.Philosophical transactions. Series A, Mathematical, physical, and engineering sciences · 2016Article
- Effect of parasympathetic stimulation on brain activity during appraisal of fearful expressions.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2015Article
- Potential Interactions between the Autonomic Nervous System and Higher Level Functions in Neurological and Neuropsychiatric Conditions.Frontiers in neurology · 2015Review
- Orthostatic hypotension and cognitive impairment: a dangerous association?Neurological sciences : official journal of the Italian Neurological Society and of the Italian Society of Clinical Neurophysiology · 2014Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
8 authors at 4 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The effect of autonomic perturbation (AP) on the central nervous system functioning is still largely unknown. Using an automated neck suction device to stimulate the carotid mechanoreceptors in the carotid sinus (parasympathetic pathway), operated synchronously with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) acquisition, we investigated the effects of AP on the activity of the brain at rest and when engaged in a visuo-spatial attention task. ECG was always recorded to index changes in autonomic function. At rest, AP induced increased activation in the insula and in the amygdala, which have been previously associated with the autonomic control and emotion processing, as well as in the caudate nucleus and in the medial temporal cortex, both implicated in cognitive functions. Despite a preserved performance during visuo-spatial attention task, AP induced increased reaction times and a positive modulation on the activation of the right posterior parietal cortex, the occipital cortex, the periaquiductal gray, and nuclei of the brainstem. We speculate that this modulation of brain activity represents, at different anatomical levels, a compensation mechanism to maintain cognitive efficiency under parasympathetic stimulation, which is traditionally considered as the system for energy regain and storage. In conclusion, this study provides the first evidence of a dynamic interaction between AP and higher level functions in humans.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.