Evidence map›Paper›PMID 36222653›Full record

ArticleeLife2022

Active tactile discrimination is coupled with and modulated by the cardiac cycle.

Alejandro Galvez-Pol, Pavandeep Virdee, Javier Villacampa, James Kilner

Open access · goldAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in eLife, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 22 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
22citing papers in PubMed, 1 pooled it
5.9field-weighted citation impact, top 3% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

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.

2 · The registry

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.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

22 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 53 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Pooled it
  2. Article
  3. Illusory cold desensitizes touch.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026
    Article
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  8. Cardiac signals inform auditory regularity processing in the absence of consciousness.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025
    Article
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  18. Review
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  20. Multisensory decisions from self to world.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2023
    Review
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

4 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.

Alejandro Galvez-PolDepartment of Clinical and Movement Neurosciences, Queen Square Institute of Neurology, University College London, London, United Kingdom.ORCID 0000-0002-4430-8336
Pavandeep VirdeeDepartment of Clinical and Movement Neurosciences, Queen Square Institute of Neurology, University College London, London, United Kingdom.ORCID 0000-0002-4732-1472
Javier VillacampaPsychology Department, University of the Balearic Islands, Palma de Mallorca, Spain.ORCID 0000-0001-9971-9004
James KilnerDepartment of Clinical and Movement Neurosciences, Queen Square Institute of Neurology, University College London, London, United Kingdom.ORCID 0000-0002-6632-6797
National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery · GBUniversitat de les Illes Balears · ES

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Perception and cognition are modulated by the phase of the cardiac signal in which the stimuli are presented. This has been shown by locking the presentation of stimuli to distinct cardiac phases. However, in everyday life sensory information is not presented in this passive and phase-locked manner, instead we actively move and control our sensors to perceive the world. Whether active sensing is coupled and modulated with the cardiac cycle remains largely unknown. Here, we recorded the electrocardiograms of human participants while they actively performed a tactile grating orientation task. We show that the duration of subjects' touch varied as a function of the cardiac phase in which they initiated it. Touches initiated in the systole phase were held for longer periods of time than touches initiated in the diastole phase. This effect was most pronounced when elongating the duration of the touches to sense the most difficult gratings. Conversely, while touches in the control condition were coupled to the cardiac cycle, their length did not vary as a function of the phase in which these were initiated. Our results reveal that we actively spend more time sensing during systole periods, the cardiac phase associated with lower perceptual sensitivity (vs. diastole). In line with interoceptive inference accounts, these results indicate that we actively adjust the acquisition of sense data to our internal bodily cycles.

Indexed as

TouchTouch PerceptionCognitionElectrocardiographyHeartHumansactive inferenceactive sensingcardiac cyclehumaninteroceptionneurosciencepredictive codingtactile discriminationtouch

Identifiers

PMID36222653
PMCPMC9671494
OpenAlexW4304692347

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

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.