Baroreceptor activity impacts upon controlled but not automatic distractor processing

• Controlled distractor processing is measured by Negative Priming.
• Automatic distractor processing is measured by distractor–response binding.
• Baroreceptor loading is manipulated by participants’ body position.
• Cognitive control processes are impaired by increased baroreceptor loading.
• Automatic S–R processing is not affected by increased baroreceptor loading.

Changes within the cardiovascular system have been shown to alter sensorimotor and memory performance, pain perception as well as cortical arousal. This influence is assumed to be mediated by afferent feedback of baroreceptors that when stimulated exert inhibitory effects on cortical structures. Mainly responsible for short-term regulation of blood pressure, afferents of the baroreceptors are widely connected to subcortical and cortical structures like the insular cortex. A putative impact on cognitive control processes remains an open question, however. Using a sequential distractor priming task, the present study investigated whether inhibitory influences of baroreceptor activation apply to selective information processing in the presence of irrelevant information. In particular, we assessed distractor–response binding and Negative Priming as indices of automatic and controlled distractor processing, respectively. Baroreceptor activation was experimentally manipulated by the systematic variation of body position. The results showed that only Negative Priming but not distractor-response binding was modulated by body position suggesting that controlled but not automatic processing of distractors is affected by baroreceptor activity.