The Influence of Slow-Paced Breathing on Executive Function

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Citation

Laborde, S., Allen, M. S., Borges, U., Hosang, T. J., Furley, P., Mosley, E., & Dosseville, F. (2021). The influence of slow-paced breathing on executive function. Journal of Psychophysiology.

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Note: You can share anything you want from these 411s—the more sharing the better. But this is my attempt to condense the findings into a bite-sized wisdom nugget:

A 2021 study published in J. Psychophysiology found that 15-min of slow breathing:

  • Improved attention control

  • Improved working memory

  • Increased cognitive flexibility

Take-home: slow breathing helps you plan, monitor, and execute your goals.

4 Fundamentals

 

1. Essential Background Material

 

  • Executive function broadly refers to your ability to plan, monitor, and execute your goals.

  • In general, executive function is comprised of the following:

    • Inhibition: The ability to resist impulses and distractions to do what you aim to do.

    • Working Memory: Working with information no longer directly in front of you—keeping information in your mind and working on it mentally.

    • Cognitive Flexibility: Being capable of changing your perspective, especially spatially or interpersonally.

  • Theory suggests that your executive function is highly related to your vagal tone (measured via HRV RMSSD): Higher vagal tone should lead to better executive function.

  • Slow breathing (< 10 breaths a minute) has consistently been shown to increase vagal tone, in both the short and long term.

  • However, less is known about its specific ability to improve executive functioning. 

  • Thus, this study aimed to see if slow breathing could improve executive function and, if so, how those improvements were related to vagal tone.

 

 

 

2. What Did this Research Do?

 

This study had 78 participants (41 male, 37 female).  They completed two different sessions, one week apart.  Each session lasted a little over 1.5 hours.

 

During one session, the participants watched a neutral TV documentary (the control condition).  During the other, they performed slow breathing (the experimental condition).

 

Here’s a general description of the sessions:

 

1.  Familiarization period: participants learned slow breathing or watched a TV documentary (11 minutes).

2.  HRV measurement while resting (5 minutes)

3.  Slow breathing or TV watching (17 minutes)

4.  HRV measurement while resting (5 minutes)

5.  Performed executive function tests (30 minutes)

 

Here’s the Slow Breathing Exercise Used:

 

  • Six breaths a minute using a 4.5-second inhale and 5.5-second exhale (slightly longer exhale used to increase vagal activity).

  • Nasal inhale with pursed-lips exhale (they even mentioned the importance of nasal breathing for synchronizing brain wave activity 👏).

  • The 17-min breathing session (step #3 above) was performed like this: 5-min slow breathing —> 1-min rest —> 5-min slow breathing —> 1-min rest —> 5-min slow breathing

 

 

Measurements

 

Based on previous research, heart rate variability (measured using RMSSD) was used to quantify vagal tone.  Executive function (inhibition, working memory, and cognitive flexibility) was assessed using clinically validated tests (listen to the audio version starting at the 5:00 min mark for more details).

 

 

 

3. What Were the Major Findings?

 

Overall changes in executive function:

 

  • For the tests of inhibition skill, their accuracy on the tests improved after slow breathing.

  • However, the speed of their responses was not significantly different (it was slightly slower).  In my opinion, this is exactly what we’d expect from slow breathing: you’d feel less rushed, think about the problem, and therefore be more accurate.

  • Working memory significantly improved following slow breathing compared to the control condition.

  • Cognitive flexibility significantly improved following slow breathing.

 

Relation to Vagal Tone

 

Mathematically, vagal tone did not explain the improved executive functioning.

 

During slow breathing, RMSSD (their measure of vagal tone) increased significantly.  Then, after the breathing ended, RMSSD went back down to near-baseline levels (it was still higher but not statistically significant).  This is a very normal response.

 

However, when they tried to create statistical relationships between the increases in RMSSD and the performance on the mental tests, none existed, meaning vagal tone couldn’t explain the improved cognitive functioning.

 

 

 

4. Why Do These Results Matter?

 

Altogether, this study suggests that, by improving executive function, slow breathing may help us plan, monitor, and execute our goals.

 

Interestingly, however, they found that these improvements were not due to increases in vagal tone.  But we should remember that using HRV RMSSD to measure vagal tone is still debated.  In general, we know they’re related, but saying that “RMSSD = vagal tone” may turn out to be untrue as we learn more about vagal tone.

 

Moreover, we know that slow-paced breathing also impacts brain chemistry, altering the release of noradrenaline, which also improves focus.  Nasal breathing also organizes brain wave activity across various regions of the brain.  Thus, many factors probably explain these results, not just vagal tone.

 

Regardless of the precise mechanism, the most significant aspect of this study is that we learn that slow breathing improves executive function.

 

 

 

1 Big Takeaway

 

The short-term practice of slow breathing helps us resist distractions and impulses, improves our working memory, and enhances our cognitive flexibility.  This means slow breathing enables you to plan, monitor, and execute your goals.

 

 

1 Practical Application

 

Practice slow breathing before performing any task in which you need your complete focus and want to resist impulses (such as the impulse to check your phone or email).

 

Moreover, although this research didn’t address it, regularly practicing slow breathing may also improve your baseline executive functioning, increasing the likelihood of you being able to plan, monitor, and achieve your goals.

 

 

P.S. For more real-world application, let’s turn to Tools of Titans. After interviewing the most creative and successful people on the planet, Tim Ferriss discovered that “More than 80% of the interviewees have some form of daily mindfulness or meditation practice.”  This gives us a hint that mindfulness, meditation, and maybe even slow breathing increase our baseline executive functioning, increasing the likelihood of accomplishing our goals.