Science and technology confirm what yogis have understood for centuries—breathing patterns are linked with emotions, cognition and perception. Aarhus University researchers in Aarhus, Denmark, reviewed studies that analyzed human and animal imaging that showed the brain-breath connection and how breathing influences the brain.
“What we found is that, across many different types of tasks and animals, brain rhythms are closely tied to the rhythm of our breath,” said lead study author Micah Allen, PhD, professor in the Department of Clinical Medicine at Aarhus University. “We are more sensitive to the outside world when we are breathing in, whereas the brain tunes out more when we breathe out. This also aligns with how some extreme sports use breathing, for example, professional marksmen are trained to pull the trigger at the end of exhalation.”
More research is recommended to further examine the influence of the breath-brain interaction based on this study’s findings. “[This study] suggests that the brain and breathing are closely intertwined in a way that goes far beyond survival, to actually impact our emotions, our attention, and how we process the outside world,” said Allen. “Our model suggests there is a common mechanism in the brain that links the rhythm of breathing to these events.”
The study is available in Psychological Review (2022; doi:10.1037/rev0000391).
See also: Breathwork Research and Application
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