The Effect of Breath Pacing on Task Switching and Working Memory

MORCILLO, ALEJANDRO DIAZ; FERNANDEZ-JOVER, EDUARDO; BONOMINI, MARIA PAULA; SEGOVIA, FLORENCIA; CALVO, MIKEL VAL; VICENTE, JOSE MANUEL FERRANDEZ

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF NEURAL SYSTEMS.

WORLD SCIENTIFIC PUBL CO PTE LTD

Año: 2020 vol. 30

0129-0657

The cortical and subcortical circuit regulating both cognition and cardiac autonomic interactions are already well established. This circuit has mainly been analyzed from cortex to heart. Thus, the heart rate variability (HRV) is usually considered a reflection of cortical activity. In this paper, we investigate whether HRV changes affect cortical activity. Short-term local autonomic changes were induced by three breathing strategies: spontaneous (Control), normal (NB) and slow paced breathing (SB). We measuredthe performance in two cognition domains: executive functions and processing speed. Breathing maneuvres produced three clearly differentiated autonomic states, which preconditioned the cognitive tasks. We found that the SB significantly increased the HRV low frequency (LF) power and loweredthe power spectral density (PSD) peak to 0.1Hz. Meanwhile, executive function was assessed by the working memory test, whose accuracy significantly improved after SB, with no significant changes in the response times. Processing speed was assessed by a multitasking test. Consistently, the proportionof correct answers (success rate) was the only dependent variable affected by short-term and long-term breath pacing. These findings suggest that accuracy, and not the timing of these two cognitive domains would benefit from short-term SB in this study population.