As the heart, lungs, gut and other organs transmit information to the brain, they affect how we perceive and interact with our environment in surprisingly profound ways. Recent studies of the heart in particular have given scientists new insights into the role that the body’s most basic processes play in defining our experience of the world.
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Cardiac activity can be divided into two phases: systole, when the heart muscle contracts and pumps out blood, followed by diastole, when it relaxes and refills with blood.
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[They] have also found that systole is more likely to enhance fear processing in people with anxiety. The researchers now hope that their work can guide therapies for certain phobias and post-traumatic stress disorder.