Defining and distinguishing optimal vs altered body–brain dynamics

Identify robust empirical criteria to dissociate optimal from altered body–brain dynamic states and quantify their influence on neurocognitive functioning within dynamical systems frameworks that integrate respiration, cardiac, pupil, and gastric rhythms with neural oscillations.

Background

Emerging evidence shows that bodily rhythms (respiration, cardiac, pupil, gastric) modulate neural excitability and cognition. A dynamical systems view has been proposed to capture body–brain coupling as low-dimensional spatiotemporal states.

However, empirical benchmarks are lacking to distinguish beneficial (“optimal”) from maladaptive (“altered”) body–brain dynamics and to quantify their cognitive impact, limiting biomarker development and intervention design.