We have never stopped breathing, but we rarely remember doing it (though we should). The brain works differently when we inspire or expire, or when we breathe through the nose or mouth.
Certainly all (or almost all) we have heard to someone who is nervous to breathe. It is something that is known that, by nature, it is good for a moment of panic.
But breathing serves for much more than oxygenate (primordial function) or for manter a calma.
Science has already shown that breathing can radically change our brain, by sharpening our senses and improving the performance capacity.
This is what neuroscientist explains Helen Thomsonin an article published Thursday, in which it proposes to explain how we can improve our day only using breathing better.
The expert maintains that the way we breathe can radically change the way we think and feel.
For example, one of the most studied breathing techniques is the pranayama – Act of consciously controlling breathing – which has shown to reduce anxiety and promote relaxation.
“Part of reason seems to be that when we breathe deeply, the pulmonary tissue stretches and stimulates a branch of the nervous system called parasympathetic nervous system. That Causes a feeling of calmBecause the parasympathetic nervous system can act as a brake on our fighting or stress escape, ”explains the expert.
A study in April at Nature Details how breathing alters the electrical state of neurons, making them more or less likely to fire an electrical impulse, which is how brain cells communicate with each other.
Breathing provides a rhythmic reference signal“Acting like an orchestra conductor” to help groups of neurons associated with the same task coordinate their activity.
Breathe
Em, a team from Northwestern University Faculty of Medicine, USA discovered that inspiration synchronized the activity in the olfactory cortex, which processes the smell and integrates this information with memories and emotions, and the limbic system, which is also involved in memory and emotions.
To investigate being inspired or expired affects cognition differently, a test was made in which participants distinguished between faces that showed fear or shock; and another where images of objects were presented and then a set of objects, with participants responds to it whether they had seen them earlier or not.
Participants were faster and more accurate in recognizing facial emotions when they inspired than when they expired. Similarly, they were better at remembering images they had seen when they inspired and remembered more easily if they had seen an object while inspiring.
Just (literally) an inspiration
Other studies also showed similar results: the performance is tendentially better when it is inspired and worse when expired.
In another study, for example, from the University of Haifa, Israel, when a group of participants decided to do a task, it was found that they were more inclined to start while inspiringunconsciously synchronizing their efforts with breathing.
All of these research points to the same conclusion: the inspiration It seems to prepare the brain to receive sensory information and enhance cognitive performance in specific tasks.
The Benefits of Nasal Breathing
Another discovery reported by neuroscientist Helen Thomson is that in many studies that test the effect of breathing on cognition, the performance decreases significantly when people breathe through the mouth instead of the nose.
This may be due to Unique neural activity involved in nasal respiration.
For example, in the 2016 study, the team found that nasal respiration increased certain types of brain activity associated with the olfactory cortex, which processes the smell and integrates this information with memories and emotions, as well as in amygdala and the hippocampus – areas involved in emotions and memory. This activity was reduced when the same people breathed through the mouth.
Thomson writes that “it is a pity” that much of our breathing occurs unconsciously. If people had better ways to visualize or control their breath, they would be better informed about how it changes during different activities.
