Artificially speeding up a mouse’s heart rate found to increase anxiety symptoms

A team of psychiatrists and bioengineers at Stanford University has found that artificially speeding up a mouse’s heart rate leads to increases in symptoms of anxiety. In their study, published in the journal Nature, the group found a way to speed up the heart rate of lab mice without impacting other parts of its body and used that method to learn more about what happens in the brain when the heart speeds up. Yoni Couderc and Anna Beyeler with Bordeaux University, have published a News and Views piece in the same journal issue outlining the work done by the team in California.