DYNABODY · A Multimodal Framework for Body-Brain Dynamics in Health and Disease

Rhythmic peripheral signals like respiratory, cardiac, and gastric activity not only serve our bodies’ strive for homeostasis, but actively modulate brain activity and behaviour. However, what are the functional mechanisms and signalling pathways by which these rhythms orchestrate brain function? An ever-growing number of studies show that body-brain interactions are of prime importance when we assign functional roles to brain activity. Yet, little is known about how body-brain coupling is governed by states of the body (e.g. breathing interventions) and the brain (e.g. emotional or excitability states). Critically, these gaps also extend to studies in disease, which currently limits our understanding of how embodied processing contributes to pathology. Generally, it is unclear how multimodal physiological rhythms interact not only with each other, but also with high-dimensional brain dynamics. I will address these challenges by combining state-of-the-art MEG neuroimaging, computational modelling, and comprehensive physiological recordings to develop a novel framework of body-brain dynamics in health and disease. I will probe body-brain coupling in consequence of short-term changes in body and brain states, i.e. induced by experimental manipulation (breathing interventions, cognitive-emotional tasks), longer-term changes like circadian rhythms, and pathological alterations of excitability states or respiratory mechanics. To widen the scope towards multimodal body-brain interactions, I will assess the link of respiratory and gastric rhythms with non-invasive olfactory bulb recordings during edible odour processing. This lays the groundwork for developing the first computational model describing whole-body-whole-brain interactions. Overall, this project will establish an explanatory model to describe function and dysfunction of multimodal body-brain coupling and redefine the way we conceptualise, investigate, and ultimately understand the interplay of body and brain.