Author: Min You1, Sylvain Laborde2,3, Nina Zammit2, Maša Iskra2, Uirassu Borges2,4, Fabrice Dosseville5
Affiliation: <sup>1</sup> EA 3918 CERREV, UFR Psychologie, Université de Caen Normandie, 14000 Caen, France.
<sup>2</sup> Department of Performance Psychology, Institute of Psychology, German Sport University Cologne, 50933 Cologne, Germany.
<sup>3</sup> EA 4260 CESAMS, UFR STAPS, Université de Caen Normandie, 14000 Caen, France.
<sup>4</sup> Department of Health & Social Psychology, Institute of Psychology, German Sport University Cologne, 50933 Cologne, Germany.
<sup>5</sup> UMR-S 1075 COMETE, INSERM, Université de Caen Normandie, 14000 Caen, France.
Conference/Journal: Int J Environ Res Public Health
Date published: 2021 Nov 26
Other:
Volume ID: 18 , Issue ID: 23 , Pages: 12478 , Special Notes: doi: 10.3390/ijerph182312478. , Word Count: 206
The practice of slow-paced breathing (SPB) has been linked to a range of positive outcomes, such as decreasing symptoms of depression, anxiety, and stress, as well as increasing well-being. Among the suggested mechanisms of action, SPB has been shown to increase cardiac vagal activity (CVA). The present study aimed to investigate whether there is a dose-response relationship modulating the effects of SPB on CVA. A total of 59 participants were involved in this study. In a within-subject design, participants attended the lab five times, and realized SPB at six cycles per minute with different durations (5, 10, 15, and 20 min), as well as a control condition without SPB. CVA was indexed via the root mean square of successive differences (RMSSD). During SPB, findings showed an increase in RMSSD in all conditions compared to the control condition. However, no differences were found in RMSSD among the different session durations, during SPB or during the resting measurement completed immediately after SPB. Noteworthily, session duration showed an influence on the spontaneous respiratory frequency in the resting measurement occurring immediately after SPB. Specifically, respiratory frequency appears to decrease with session duration, thus potentially contributing to additional relaxing effects.
Keywords: abdominal breathing; diaphragmatic breathing; heart rate variability; parasympathetic nervous system; vagus nerve.
PMID: 34886206 DOI: 10.3390/ijerph182312478