Increased stomach-brain coupling indexes a dimensional signature of negative mental health symptoms

Abstract

AbstractVisceral rhythms orchestrate the physiological states underlying human emotion. Chronic aberrations in these brain-body interactions are implicated in a broad spectrum of mental health disorders. However, the specific contributions of the gastric-brain coupling to affective symptoms remain poorly understood. We investigated the relationship between this novel interoceptive axis and mental health symptoms in 243 participants, using a cross validated machine learning approach. We find that frontal parietal brain coupling to the gastric rhythm indexes a dimensional signature of mental health spanning anxiety, depression, stress, and well-being. Control analyses confirm the specificity of these interactions to the gastric-brain axis. Our study establishes coupling between the stomach and brain as a factor in the pathology of mental health, and offers new targets for interventions remediating aberrant brain-body coupling.