It is believed that with the feelings of anxiety or fright, heartbeats become faster; now, in a study, it has been revealed that the opposite of this takes place as well. The heartbeats turn faster and increase the level of anxiety. Scientists have arrived at this conclusion by artificially increasing heartbeats, and witnessing an increase in the level of anxiety with the same. With this, it appears that the heartbeats, upon increasing, send the message to get tensed to the brain.
Neuroscientist Carl Desroth of the Stanford University in California has said that optogenetics were relied upon to understand this phenomenon, with which, the activity of the cells can be controlled with the use of light. He increased the heartbeats of a rat with the optogenetic system, and when the heartbeats paced up, the activities of the rat’s body showed that anxiety was getting developed. This shows that the heart and the brain developed anxiety together.
Sahib Khalsa, Psychiatrist, Laureate Institute for Brain Research, Oklahoma, said that it is already known that slowing down your breathing helps reduce anxiety. Hugo Critchley, Psychiatrist, Beighton and Sussex Medical College, has said that it is possible that this relation between the brain and the heart developed in order to process the signs of danger quickly. Before the brain processes the complete situation in danger, the heartbeats increase to inform the brain that it should get worried.
