Slow Paced Breathing

  • Mosley, Emma (PI)

    Project Details

    Academic description

    Slow paced breathing is recognised as an effective stress management technique and is implemented in many scenarios where individuals have to cope with high stress environments such as sport. This is because slow paced breathing can influence the autonomic nervous system (ANS), which is involved in the adaptation to stress. Breathing at a specific pace (6 cycles per minute) couples respiration and blood pressure systems which triggers the resonance properties of the cardiovascular system and results in an increase in vagal afferences. The neurovisceral integration model offers predictions with regard to cognitive performance in demanding situations, with a specific focus on executive functions which are controlled by the prefrontal cortex and specifically, suggesting that higher levels of resting cardiac vagal activity promote effective cognitive performance. Conversely, those who have lower resting cardiac vagal activity before cognitive performance have been shown to perform poorly in comparison to those who have higher levels at rest. Only one study has examined the relationship between executive function and slow paced breathing, however baseline cognitive performance was not assessed. There needs to be further investigation to understand the relationship between increasing cardiac vagal activity through manual manipulation (slow paced breathing) and subsequent cognitive performance.
    The aim of this application is to facilitate completing the following study “the influence of a slow paced breathing intervention on cardiac vagal activity and subsequent cognitive performance”. This study was started prior to Covid, but data collection was halted due to the pandemic. The funding will be used to enable data collection for this project being led by the investigators. This study directly links to a larger body of work around slow paced breathing, HRV and its application for athletes.
    StatusFinished
    Effective start/end date1/01/2231/07/22

    Funding

    • Solent University

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