Brain-body interaction during natural story listening

It is often said that the body and the mind are connected. Yet, direct evidence of a bidirectional link is elusive. We hypothesized a top-down effect of cognition on arousal, and predicted that auditory narratives will drive not only brain signals but also peripheral physiological signals. We find that auditory narratives entrained gaze variation, saccade initiation, pupil size, and heart rate. This is consistent with a top-down effect of cognition on autonomic function. We also hypothesized a bottom-up effect, whereby autonomic physiology affects arousal. Controlled breathing affected pupil size, and heart rate was entrained by controlled saccades. Additionally, fluctuations in heart rate preceded fluctuations of pupil size and brain signals. Gaze variation, pupil size and heart rate were all associated with anterior-central brain signals. Together this suggests bidirectional causal effects between peripheral autonomic function and central brain circuits involved in the control of arousal. HighlightsO_LIListening to narratives modulates eye movements. C_LIO_LIHeart rate fluctuations precede fluctuations in pupil size and anterior-central neural activity. C_LIO_LIBreathing modulates pupil size suggesting causal effect on central arousal. C_LIO_LIRhythmic saccades can entrain heart beats. C_LI eTOCWhen we listen to a story our body is integrally involved in the experience. We provide evidence for a bidirectional and causal link between body and mind by analyzing brain signals, pupil size, heart rate and eye movements, while subjects listen to narratives and during interventions that control autonomic signals.