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Doha, Qatar: Taking slow breaths with longer exhalations is commonly associated with relaxation, but new research suggests the technique may also influence how people weigh rewards when making risky decisions.
A study led by researchers at the German Institute of Human Nutrition Potsdam-Rehbrücke (DIfE) and Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin found that prolonged exhalation increased participants' tendency to accept risky choices in an experimental setting.
The effect appeared to be driven mainly by increased sensitivity to potential rewards rather than a reduced concern about possible losses, according to the study published in the scientific journal Neuron.
Researchers recruited 41 participants, with an average age of about 25, and asked them to make a series of decisions involving possible monetary gains and losses while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).
Participants completed the decision-making task under two breathing conditions: their natural breathing rhythm and a deliberately slower pattern involving two seconds of inhalation followed by eight seconds of exhalation.
In each trial, participants had to decide whether to accept or reject a gamble offering a 50 percent chance of a financial gain or loss.
Under the prolonged-exhalation condition, participants accepted risky choices significantly more often, the researchers found.
But the reason is particularly interesting.
The longer exhalations did not significantly change how participants responded to potential losses.
Instead, potential rewards influenced their decisions more strongly.
In other words, the breathing technique did not simply make participants less afraid of losing.
It appeared to make the possible reward carry greater weight when they made their choice.
The researchers also monitored breathing, cardiac activity, skin conductance and pupil responses while recording participants' brain activity.
Prolonged exhalation increased activity of the parasympathetic nervous system, which is generally associated with the body's calmer "rest-and-digest" state.
Participants who showed greater breathing-related changes in cardiac parasympathetic activity also displayed stronger reward-related responses in two areas of the brain, the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) and precuneus. The vmPFC plays an important role in assessing the subjective value of choices.
The findings provide evidence that deliberately changing breathing patterns can influence interactions between the heart and brain and, in turn, affect how people evaluate rewards during decision-making, the researchers said.
However, the results should not be interpreted as evidence that slow breathing generally causes reckless behaviour.
The experiment involved only 41 mostly young participants and a controlled monetary task.
The researchers themselves describe the work as a proof-of-principle study and say further research is needed to determine whether the effect applies more broadly to everyday decisions.
The authors also noted limitations in the structure of the reward-and-loss choices used in the experiment and said future studies should test more balanced decision scenarios.
The finding nevertheless adds another dimension to research into how bodily states can influence decisions that may appear to be purely mental.
Rather than simply calming the body, the study suggests that changing the rhythm of breathing may also alter how the brain evaluates what it stands to gain.
