Processing of fMRI-related anxiety and information flow between brain and body revealed a preponderance of oscillations at 0.15/0.16 Hz

Slow oscillations of different center frequencies and their coupling play an important role in brain-body interactions. The crucial question analyzed by us is, whether the low frequency (LF) band (0.05–0.15 Hz) or the intermediate frequency (IMF) band (0.1–0.2 Hz) is more eminent in respect of the information flow between body (heart rate and respiration) and BOLD signals in cortex and brainstem. A recently published study with the LF band in fMRI-naïve subjects revealed an intensive information flow from the cortex to the brainstem and a weaker flow from the brainstem to the cortex. The comparison of both bands revealed a significant information flow from the middle frontal gyrus (MFG) to the precentral gyrus (PCG) and from brainstem to PCG only in the IMF band. This pattern of directed coupling between slow oscillations in the cortex and brainstem not only supports the existence of a pacemaker-like structure in brainstem, but provides first evidence that oscillations centered at 0.15/0.16 Hz can also emerge in brain networks. BOLD oscillations in resting states are dominating at ~ 0.08 Hz and respiratory rates at ~ 0.32 Hz. Therefore, the frequency component at ~ 0.16 Hz (doubling-halving 0.08 Hz or 0.32 Hz) is of special interest, because phase coupled oscillations can reduce the energy demand.