Neural Control of Autonomic Arousal During Threat Anticipation Revealed by High-Resolution Cardiac Contractility
Output Details
Description
Here, we leverage a threat-anticipation task—in which a rapid and precise motor response may prevent an electric shock—to examine the neural and physiological correlates of emotion-related motor control. We find that threat-related increases in contractility tracked threat-related modulation of activation in dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, posterior parietal cortex, and cerebellum, with contractility-modulated cerebellar activation predicting faster motor responses under threat. These findings elucidate the physiological signals linking sympathetic drive with neural responding, emotional experience, and adaptive behavioral mobilization during emotion-guided action. As paradoxical kinesia (PK) is a phenomenon observed in Parkinson's Disease wherein emotionally-intense contexts facilitate the ability to perform fluid and often goal-relevant motor behaviors, and given that the regions of interest engaged in threat-related motor responding here are not recruited in the cannonical closed-loop motor system, this work therefore sheds light on the motor circuitry that may plausibly be engaged during PK.
Identifier (DOI)
10.64898/2026.02.23.707545
