Cardiac-generated sympathetic stress alters heart-brain communication, reduces EEG-theta activity, and increases locomotor behavior

The central nervous system modulates heart function on a beat-to-beat basis via increasingly understood mechanisms. Conversely, whether and how humoral/functional cardiac variations shape brain activity and adaptive behavior remains unclear. This study shows that mice overexpressing adenylyl cyclase type 8 in myocytes (TGAC8), characterized by persistently elevated heart rate/contractility, also display increased locomotion. This effect is sustained by enhanced gamma rhythms, as evidenced by simultaneous behavioral and EEG/ECG monitoring. These changes are specific because they are not paralleled by other modifications, such as heightened anxiety-like behavior. In unison, TGAC8 mice hippocampus exhibits upregulated GABA-A receptors, whose activation chiefly accounts for gamma activity generation. Moreover, the Granger causality analysis between ECG and EEG attests to the causal involvement of the autonomic component of the heartbeat in shaping EEG gamma oscillations in a bottom-up modality. Mechanistically, TGAC8 harbors elevated circulating dopamine/DOPA levels of cardiac origin and upregulated hippocampal D5 dopamine receptor levels. In synergy with the GABA-A receptor, D5 activation favors hippocampal inhibitory currents that drive EEG gamma oscillations. These studies, therefore, inform how heart-initiated functional and/or humoral modifications reverberate back to the brain to modulate specific primary adaptive responses, such as locomotion. SignificanceThe brain is continuously aware of the functional status of many bodily organs, modulating, for instance, the hearts activity beat-by-beat. Conversely, how cardiac activity modifications impact brain function and behavior is less understood. We disclose that augmenting myocyte adenyl cyclase 8 (AC8) activity in mice increases their locomotion. Elevated cardiac AC8 levels lead to higher circulating dopamine and DOPA, hormones crucially involved in movement control, and increased expression of the hippocampuss GABA-A and D5 receptors; the activation of the latter modifies hippocampal gamma oscillations shaping locomotor activity. Thus, the brain interprets changes in myocardial AC8 activity as a "sustained exercise-like" situation and responds by activating areas commanding to increase locomotion.