Elisa Xu

How is the body experienced in mental health conditions? 🧠🫀🫁

Our (@gabmackie.bsky.social) new paper in eClinicalMedicine explores lived experiences and patient priorities for interoception research. 🧵1/n

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Respiratory and cardiac interoceptive sensitivity in the first two years of life Infants are sensitive to their own respiration and heartbeat already in the first two years of life.

Do babies sense their own body rhythms? Our new paper on 🫀 & 🫁 interoception in 👶 is now out in @elife.bsky.social: Respiratory and cardiac interoceptive sensitivity in the first two years of life doi.org/10.7554/eLif... @kinderstudien.bsky.social @univie.ac.at led by @markustuente.bsky.social

Thank you so much!

🧵 10/ Big thanks to @sinaibrain.bsky.social and co-authors @allisonwatersphd.bsky.social @samanthapitts @jacobdahillfuchel @sarascherrer @tanyanauvel @jacquelineguerraoverton @patriciorivaposse @andreacrowell @martijnfigee @sankaralagapan @crozell.bsky.social @kisuengchoi.bsky.social
@helenmayberg

Neural Interoceptive Processing Is Modulated by Deep Brain Stimulation to Subcallosal Cingulate Cortex for Treatment-Resistant Depression Symptoms of depression are associated with impaired interoceptive processing of bodily sensation. The antidepressant effects of subcallosal cingulate deep brain stimulation (SCC DBS) include acute cha...

🧵 9/ A big thank you to our participants, team members, and funders (NIH, HDRF, NIMH) for making this research possible. 🙌 Explore the full study here: www.biologicalpsychiatrycnni.org/article/S245... #MentalHealth💡 #FriedmanBrainInstitute

🧵 8/ Future Research: While our sample size was small and HEP methods need standardization, future studies could explore longitudinal interoceptive changes, combine interoceptive and autonomic measures, and test DBS effects across different targets. 🔬📈

🧵 7/ Implications: Interoception may play a role in the antidepressant effects of deep brain stimulation for TRD, strengthening the link between interoceptive processing and #depression. 🧠❤️

Cingulate dynamics track depression recovery with deep brain stimulation - Nature This study demonstrates how activity in the cingulate cortex tracks depression recovery, providing symptom relief using deep brain stimulation.

🧵 6/ HEP peaks and recovery: Monthly HEPs tracked with key neural transition points in the trajectory to wellness with DBS. www.nature.com/articles/s41... #DBS

We can begin to imagine how tracking patients' brain-body physiology can guide successful treatment of depression.

🧵 5/Findings: Over 6 months, increased HEP amplitude correlates with faster antidepressant response (see figure below). Additionally, immediate application of DBS disrupts HEP amplitude; evidence that interoceptive circuits are modified.⚡📈

🧵 4/ What is HEP? Heartbeat-evoked potential (HEP) is an EEG marker that reflects how the brain processes the sensation of the heart. It helps us understand the neural basis of interoceptive awareness—how our brains perceive internal bodily sensations. 🧠♥️

🧵 3/ Exploring the heart-brain connection: We measured the heartbeat-evoked potential (HEP) in 8 patients with treatment-resistant depression, before and after 6 months of DBS treatment, to see how their brains process these interoceptive signals. #HEP

Mapping the "Depression Switch" During Intraoperative Testing of Subcallosal Cingulate Deep Brain Stimulation - PubMed This analysis of transient behavior changes during intraoperative deep brain stimulation of the subcallosal cingulate and the subsequent identification of unique connectivity patterns may provide a bi...

🧵 2/ Our inspiration: When severely depressed patients first experience SCC deep brain stimulation they report feeling lighter, calmer and warmer, and their heart rate increases— #interoception might be involved in #DBS antidepressant effects. 💓 pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26408865/

Neural Interoceptive Processing Is Modulated by Deep Brain Stimulation to Subcallosal Cingulate Cortex for Treatment-Resistant Depression Symptoms of depression are associated with impaired interoceptive processing of bodily sensation. The antidepressant effects of subcallosal cingulate deep brain stimulation (SCC DBS) include acute cha...

🧵 1/ Does depression recovery rewire the mind-body connection? Our latest from the Nash Family Center for Advanced Circuit Therapeutics explores effects of deep brain stimulation for depression on neural interoception. #NashNeuroscience www.biologicalpsychiatrycnni.org/article/S245...

We often mind-wander about our past, present, & future. What happens when our minds drift towards our bodies? In a new fMRI study (n ~ 500), @leahbanellis.bsky.social + team discovers unique neural, affective, & physiological correlates of "body-wandering" at rest. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

How can adults undo the harm of being parentified as children? | Aeon Essays When parents cast a child into the role of mediator, friend and carer, the wounds are profound. But recovery is possible

I enjoyed this clear, 2022 article on the parentified child, i.e. a child growing up with a family that expected the child to do the affective regulation of the parents or their difficult dynamics. aeon.co/essays/how-c...

Introspective psychophysics for the study of subjective experience Abstract. Studying subjective experience is hard. We believe that pain is not identical to nociception, nor pleasure a computational reward signal, nor fea

now out in Cerebral Cortex! my newest opinion piece,
"Introspective psychophysics for the study of subjective experience"
#neuroskyence #neuroAI #consciousness #introspection #psychology

academic.oup.com/cercor/advan...

Incredibly honored to have participated! Thank you @seanmcarroll.bsky.social .

Amy Cao

Excited to share my first post here! Our new paper reveals a top-down breathing circuit that slows breathing to ease anxiety & fear. A step forward in understanding how brain-breathing interactions shape emotion. Published in Nature Neuroscience—grateful to my team!
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

We have a new preprint out, with Teresa Schuhmann, Alex Sack and Catherine Tallon-Baudry.

I think our findings give some interesting leads on the various mechanisms underlying visceral influences on the motor system and how we conceptualize interoception as a whole.
#neuroskyence

It's one of the most remarkable days of Insula week (day 3). ❓What happens when you stimulate it❓

Among the things, ⚡ecstatic sensation⚡ “a sense of hyper-reality, and a complete present-moment awareness with a feeling of union with the Universe."

WOW!

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31196836/