Respiration shapes response speed and accuracy with a systematic time lag.

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Neuroscience
• Psychophysiology
• Human Behavior

Background:

• Sensory-cognitive functions are closely linked to physiological processes like respiration.
• Individuals naturally synchronize their breathing patterns with expected events in various activities, including computer-based tasks.
• Variations in respiratory phase during tasks can impact brain activity and behavioral performance, affecting response speed and accuracy.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the coexistence of respiratory phase alignment to events and its influence on behavioral performance.
• To determine if both average respiratory phase and trial-to-trial variations predict cognitive task outcomes.
• To identify the timing of respiratory influence on sensory-motor responses.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of 12 datasets involving 277 participants performing sensory-cognitive tasks.
• Statistical modeling to assess the predictive power of respiratory phase on behavioral performance (reaction times).
• Examination of both average respiratory phase relative to trials and trial-to-trial variations.

Main Results:

• Both the alignment of respiration to expected events and trial-to-trial respiratory variations significantly predict behavioral performance, particularly reaction times.
• This co-modulation of respiration and behavior is consistent across individuals, irrespective of their breathing rate.
• The strongest influence of respiratory phase on responses occurs approximately 2 seconds prior to the response.

Conclusions:

• Respiration plays a dual role in cognitive tasks: aligning to external events and exhibiting internal variability that impacts performance.
• Respiratory phase, both on average and moment-to-moment, holds significant predictive power for sensory-motor responses.
• A profound, time-lagged influence of structured respiration on cognitive task performance is evident.