Co-ordination of breathing with rhythmic head and eye movements and with passive turnings of the body

Abstract

In the present study, we investigated co-ordination of breathing with active horizontal head and eye movements and with passive body turnings. The main purpose was to compare co-ordination with active voluntary and with passive movements. Co-ordination was defined according to the relative phases (RPs) between breathing and additional rhythms. It was present when at least five consecutive RPs scattered less than 25% of breath duration or at least three consecutive RPs scattered less than 10%. Additionally, we studied the influence of factors such as size of active muscle groups, mechanical interactions or involuntary motor activities. In consecutive experimental conditions, 17 healthy volunteers performed voluntary rhythmic head (with eyes open and closed) and eye movements and were moved passively (also with eyes open and closed). Co-ordination occurred in all experimental conditions. The highest percentage of co-ordinated breaths was found during active head movements with closed eyes but the difference with other conditions was not significant. However, periods of stable entrainment were observed only in this condition. The results demonstrate that co-ordination is possible even in the absence of voluntary rhythmic movements. Size of active muscle groups or mechanical interactions do not necessarily affect the degree of co-ordination. On the other hand, involuntary motor activities such as reflex eye movements associated with vestibular stimulation may have a considerable influence on co-ordination between other motor processes. These results strongly support the theory of co-ordination as an unconscious nervous interaction that is not based on mechanical or intentional factors.

The effect of motor–respiratory coordination on the precision of tracking movements: influence of attention, task complexity and training

“…In the present study, only two subjects presented stable entrainment in all tests while about 75 % of all subjects showed MRC in less than 50 % of all recorded breaths. This distribution is in accordance with previous findings in various types of rhythmic non-respiratory movements (van Alphen and Duffin 1994;Rassler and Raabe 2003;Hoffmann et al 2012).…”

“…Although in the first trial, average breath duration was 3.3 s, thus perfectly matching the target rate, this initial increase did not immediately result in entrainment. This fully confirms previous findings Ebert et al 2002;Rassler and Raabe 2003). However, only slight modulations in breath duration were then sufficient to entrain the respiratory rhythm to that of the tracking movement.…”

“…They are often associated with a complex task requiring a high level of attention and concentration for successful performance. Hence, it is conceivable that precision of those movements can be impaired by MRC. MRC has been found during fine motor actions such as hand, finger, head or eye movements, and even during sole rhythmical sensory input (Wilke et al 1975;Haas et al 1986;Sammon and Darnall 1994;Temprado et al 2002;Rassler and Raabe 2003) indicating that MRC is not primarily dependent on mechanical relations or metabolic demands. In contrast, timing-related factors such as movement velocity, movement rate or breathing rate have a marked influence on MRC (Rassler and Kohl 1996;Ebert et al 2000;Amazeen et al 2001;Temprado et al 2002;McDermott et al 2003;O'Halloran et al 2012).…”

Breathing as a Fundamental Rhythm of Brain Function

“…A second key prediction is that respiration-locked modulation of cortical gamma activity and phase transition timing directly links respiratory behavior to higher cortical processes, including cognitive and limbic functions, sensory perception and motor control. The respiration-locked modulation of neocortical activity we propose here would thus provide a neuronal mechanism and causal link between respiration and pain perception (Arsenault et al, 2013; Iwabe et al, 2014), motor control (Ebert et al, 2002; Rassler and Raabe, 2003; Li and Laskin, 2006; Iwamoto et al, 2010; Cao et al, 2012; Krupnik et al, 2015), attention (Gallego et al, 1991; Krupnik et al, 2015) and emotion (Benson et al, 1974; Arch and Craske, 2006; Homma and Masaoka, 2008). …”

“…Eye movements, for example, have been shown to be transiently phase-locked to respiration during sleep (Rittweger and Pöpel, 1998) as well as in the awake state (Rassler and Raabe, 2003). Recently, Ito et al (2013) reported saccade related changes in the power of neuronal oscillatory activity in four frequency bands, including gamma, in primates that were freely viewing their environment.…”