mmalabanan
- Scientists recently discovered that breathing can have an effect on the overall activity level of the brain.
- They concluded that breathing can actually change one’s state of mind.
Do you ever wonder why you are almost always told to take deep breaths whenever you’re anxious? Can taking slow, deep breaths really calm you down?
According to a recent study by researchers at Stanford University led by Mark Krasnow, breathing can have an effect on the overall activity level of the brain. They made the conclusion after studying a group of 3,000 neurons in the brain stems of mice that control the rodent’s different breathing patterns.
Scientists discovered that there are about 60 types of nerve cells that make up a so-called breathing pacemaker and each of the nerve cell groups are responsible for various breathing patterns.
The group tried to isolate the various types of nerve cell groups to see their effects on breathing. They then used a genetic technique to see what breathing function was disrupted when specific neurons were silenced. The experiment initially seemed like a failure when the mice didn’t exhibit any changes in breathing.
Scientists then put aside the experiment and moved the animals to a new cage environment. To the scientists’ surprise, the mice with the changes in their breathing center seemed to “chill” while they were being moved. Normally, these animals would be sniffing and running around to investigate their new environment.
Apparently, the team disrupted a set of nerves with a direct line to the brain’s arousal center.
“This liaison to the rest of the brain means that if we can slow breathing down, as we can do by deep breathing or slow controlled breaths, the idea would be that these neurons then don’t signal the arousal center, and don’t hyperactivate the brain. So you can calm your breathing and also calm your mind,” Krasnow explained.
Scientists then concluded that breathing changes one’s state of mind.
