The influence of breathing on the central nervous system

Bordoni: Cureus: diphragm, breathing, phrenic nerve, vagus nerve, neural oscillation

Many of you know that I’m very fond of the work of Shift Adapt and the Human Health and Performance Foundation. Breath is a fascinating seguay between things we can and cannot control, and also allows us to participate more intentionally with our physilogy — rather than at the mercy of it.

This article, and several mentioned below, illustrate how breath changes blood flow to our brain, accuracy of memory recall, and emotional recognition.

To start us off, “the diphragmn is the motor muscle of breath, which can be automatic, forced, or controlled.” I’ve mentioned in other posts that forced breathing can be damaging. Automatic breathing is what we do most of the time, but pathological emotional, behavioral, somatic, or cognitive factors take over our lives if we do not make an intentional practice of our breathing — at least intermittently.

The phrenic nerve sends motor information to the diaphragmn and connects the sympathetic nervous system to the adrenal gland. The vagus nerve serves a similar function, but lower down the spine, from ther cervical to abdominal levels.

The referenced paper here notes several intersting changes in our physiology based on our breathing. At the top level, inhiliation moves blood to the brain while exhalation moves blood away from it.

“It has been demonstrated on a human model that a variation of cerebral blood flow is able to produce action potentials, which can be recorded with EEG… Blood pressure changes may directly stimulate an electrical response of brain neurones, with small variations in microvolts.”

This means that our breathing can regulate our blood pressure, which in turn changes both the blood flow to our brain and the voltage the brain procduces.

“"Breath has patterns. Schemes create behavior. Breath is a behavior. Behavior represents the person. Breath reveals the person.”

Bordoni, B., Purgol, S., Bizzarri, A., Modica, M., & Bruno, M. (2018). The influence of breathing on the central nervous system. Cureus. https://doi.org/10.7759/cureus.2724