Narratives engage brain and body: bidirectional interactions during natural story listening

Abstract

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 modulate eye movements, pupil size and heart rate. To test this we recorded peripheral signals and scalp potentials during auditory narratives. We find that auditory narratives increased variability of gaze position and entrained 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 scalp potentials and pupil size. Together this suggests a bottom-up effect of peripheral autonomic function on central autonomic brain circuits. Thus, the brain-body connection appears to be a two-way street.