Analysis of mental states based on peripheral organ activity

Abstract

Behavioral tests using rodents are widely used for assessing mental states of animals and the effects of pharmacological drugs on psychiatric disorders. However, the results of behavioral tests are sometimes inconsistent due to individual differences. To evaluate animal’s mental states based on internal organ activity, we recently developed a new electrophysiological method to simultaneously monitor cortical local field potentials, electrocardiograms, electromyograms, respiratory signals, and vagus nerve spikes in a freely moving rodent. Here, we introduce some results obtained from an elevated plus maze test. Both cortical activity patterns and vagus nerve spike patterns are crucially related to other peripheral organ activity rather than arm types of the maze in which animal were located, which demonstrates that combining behavioral tests with peripheral physiological makers enables a more accurate evaluation of rodent mental states. Moreover, we show that functional connection patterns across cortical regions could be predictive factors accounting for stress susceptibility defined based on the irregularity of heartbeat signals, demonstrating that cortical activity may be a mechanism that causes abnormal activity of peripheral organs in response to mental stress episodes. These observations from our recording technique are a new step for understanding of the neurophysiological correlates of mind-body associations in health and disease.