How slow, steady deep breathing reduces anxiety and panic states

[Gyakuto]

They’ve found the neural correlates of how/why slow, steady breathing produces calm relaxed states and might explain why activities such as yoga and mindfulness reduce anxiety and panic states!


Abstract. Nature makes you pay for the whole article

 

[Fungus]

Fortunately there seems to be a free preprint at biorxiv

A top-down slow breathing circuit that alleviates negative affect

Breathing is profoundly influenced by both behavior and emotion[1][1]–[4][2] and is the only physiological parameter that can be volitionally controlled[4][2]–[6][3]. This indicates the presence of cortical-to-brainstem pathways that directly control brainstem breathing centers, but the neural...

www.biorxiv.org

 

[Fungus]

Thanks for the link! Interesting! will read it later in more detail. I always found the somewhat questionable HRV measures inconclusive evidence of evidence, simply because it doesn't just depend on the ANS tones, but also the the respiration rate itself which is partly under voluntary control. This is why many stress measurements in psychophysiology must control for respiration rate, otherwise you don't what if the apparent ANS tones from HRV scores are "only" from the respiration rate change. So that paper was interesting!