Keeping the breath in mind
- Scientific interest in the brain and body interactions has been surging in recent years. One fundamental yet underexplored aspect of brain and body interactions is the link between the respiratory and the nervous systems. In this article, we give an overview of the emerging literature on how respiration modulates neural, cognitive and emotional processes. Moreover, we present a perspective linking respiration to the free-energy principle. We frame volitional modulation of the breath as an active inference mechanism in which sensory evidence is recontextualized to alter interoceptive models. We further propose that respiration-entrained gamma oscillations may reflect the propagation of prediction errors from the sensory level up to cortical regions in order to alter higher level predictions. Accordingly, controlled breathing emerges as an easily accessible tool for emotional, cognitive, and physiological regulation.
Author details: | Asena BoyadzhievaORCiD, Ezgi KayhanORCiDGND |
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DOI: | https://doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2021.647579 |
ISSN: | 1662-453X |
Pubmed ID: | https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34267621 |
Title of parent work (English): | Frontiers in neuroscience / Frontiers Research Foundation |
Subtitle (English): | respiration, neural oscillations, and the free energy principle |
Publisher: | Frontiers Research Foundation |
Place of publishing: | Lausanne |
Publication type: | Article |
Language: | English |
Date of first publication: | 2021/06/29 |
Publication year: | 2021 |
Release date: | 2024/03/06 |
Tag: | breathing; controlled; free-energy principle; interoception; respiration-entrained neural oscillations; self-regulation |
Volume: | 15 |
Article number: | 647579 |
Number of pages: | 13 |
Funding institution: | University of Vienna; Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG)German Research Foundation (DFG) [402789467] |
Organizational units: | Humanwissenschaftliche Fakultät / Strukturbereich Kognitionswissenschaften / Department Psychologie |
DDC classification: | 6 Technik, Medizin, angewandte Wissenschaften / 61 Medizin und Gesundheit / 610 Medizin und Gesundheit |
Peer review: | Referiert |
Publishing method: | Open Access / Gold Open-Access |
DOAJ gelistet | |
License (German): | CC-BY - Namensnennung 4.0 International |