Effects of cognitive and psychomotor tasks on breath-holding span

Abstract

Bartlett (J. Appl. Physiol. 42: 717-721, 1977) demonstrated that a psychomotor task (hand dynamometer) extended breath holds at functional residual capacity (FRC) in a manner comparable to Valsalva and Mueller maneuvers. This led us to the hypothesis that distraction of a subject's attention from dyspneic sensations accounted for Bartlett's findings. This hypothesis was tested by comparing a hand dynamometer task (rubber-bulb squeeze) with a mental performance task (mental arithmetic). Results for tasks performed separately and concurrently in a within-subjects design showed comparable effects, without reaching a FRC breath-hold performance ceiling. Implications of results for effects of nonmechanical and nonchemical factors on respiratory drive are discussed.

Mechanisms of sympathetic regulation during Apnea

“…), and mental distractions (Alpher et al. ). As there is arguably considerable cognitive stress involved with breath holding, this also needs to be acknowledged within the current study.…”

“…) end‐inspiratory breath‐hold, (Alpher et al. ) prehyperventilation breath‐hold, and (Andersson and Schagatay ) prehyperoxia breath‐hold. A final repeated rebreathe breath‐hold protocol was performed to measure the peak sympathetic response during successive breath‐holds at increasing chemoreflex stress.…”

“…However, the specific contribution of each mechanism has not been elucidated. Muscle sympathetic activity was collected in participants (n = 10; 24 AE 3 years) that performed four maximal volitional apneas aimed at isolating lung-stretch (mechanical) and chemoreflex drive: (Ainslie and Duffin 2009) end-expiratory breath-hold, (Ainslie et al 2013) end-inspiratory breath-hold, (Alpher et al 1986) prehyperventilation breathhold, and (Andersson and Schagatay 1998) prehyperoxia breath-hold. A final repeated rebreathe breath-hold protocol was performed to measure the peak sympathetic response during successive breath-holds at increasing chemoreflex stress.…”

Breath‐holding and its breakpoint

“…Even within the same subject breath‐hold duration can be increased by 13–19% with distractions [either by motor tasks (Fig. 2) or by mental arithmetic (Alpher et al 1986)] or by 37% with successive trials (Fig. 3).…”

Is breath-hold time an objective index of exertional dyspnoea in humans?

“…That is, the attention to the motor demands of the activity diverting attention from breathing itself might well serve to oset a component of the acuity of the sensation reported as dyspnoea (Douglas and Haldane 1909;Hill and Flack 1910). It has been reported, for example, that t BH can be prolonged in resting subjects if they are doing mental arithmetic (Alpher et al 1986) or squeezing a rubber ball (Bartlett 1977;Alpher et al 1986); interestingly, however, this was reported not to be the case during passive exercise (Craig and Babcock 1962). We believe that this attention-diverting effect of the dynamic exercise may subserve a similar role.…”