New research published in journal neuron We show evidence that by controlling our breathing rhythms, we can actively shape how we make risky choices. The findings show that taking a long breath increases the activity of the body’s resting nervous system, which in turn makes the brain more sensitive to potential rewards. This suggests that simple breathing exercises may serve as a practical tool for changing decision-making behavior in daily life.
The way we process external information and make choices is deeply connected to our internal physical state. When a person is stressed, their heart beats faster and their breathing becomes faster. This physical arousal tends to make people more sensitive to potential losses, often resulting in cautious and risk-averse behavior. This stress response is controlled by the sympathetic nervous system, a neural network that prepares the body for intense physical activity.
On the other hand, a relaxed physical state is usually associated with the parasympathetic nervous system. This is a parallel network of nerves that helps the body rest and digest, slows the heart rate, and promotes calmness. Previous research suggests that people with higher resting parasympathetic activity tend to be more sensitive to potential rewards.
A team of scientists led by Wenhao Huang and Soyoung Q. Park from the German Institute of Human Nutrition wanted to see if people could intentionally manipulate this internal system to change their behavior. They focused on a specific technique called prolonged exhalation. This involves taking a short breath and exhaling slowly. Physiologically, exhalation is associated with a decrease in heart rate, which increases the natural time variation between heartbeats.
The researchers aimed to find out whether this deliberate breathing technique could increase parasympathetic activity in real time. They also wanted to understand whether such physical changes change the way the brain evaluates risky options. By examining the connections between the heart, lungs, and brain, scientists hoped to unravel the biological pathways that link conscious breathing and complex cognitive processes.
To test their idea, the researchers recruited healthy adults for a laboratory experiment. The final group included 41 participants, with an average age of approximately 25 years. The scientists used a within-subjects design. This meant that all participants completed the gambling task under two different breathing conditions, allowing researchers to compare each person’s behavior to their own baseline.
In one condition, the participant is breathing naturally, and this condition is called apnea. The researchers first recorded each person’s normal breathing rhythm and created a customized visual pacebar on the screen that they could track. In the other condition, participants followed a prolonged exhalation pattern. This required me to inhale for 2 seconds and exhale for 8 seconds, again following the visual progress bar.
In both breathing exercises, participants were presented with a series of gambles. Each option has a 50% probability of winning a monetary reward ranging from 10 to 30 euros and a 50% probability of losing a certain amount of money ranging from 5 to 15 euros. Participants were given up to 3 seconds to decide whether to accept or reject the gamble on a 4-point scale.
To maintain participants’ interest, they were told that three of the decisions would be randomly selected at the end of the study. These selected choices are paid using real money. This allowed participants to take the gambling task seriously and make realistic choices.
As participants made these choices, the research team used multiple tools to record participants’ physical reactions. They used electrocardiograms and pulse sensors to monitor heart activity and measure heart rate variability. Heart rate variability refers to the variation in time between successive heartbeats. High heart rate variability is a well-known marker of increased parasympathetic activity.
The scientists also measured skin conductance and pupil size using special trackers. These physical reactions indicate sympathetic nervous system activity. At the same time, participants lay inside a functional magnetic resonance imaging scanner. The machine tracks blood flow in the brain, allowing scientists to observe which neural areas are activated during the decision-making process.
Measurements revealed that the prolonged exhalation technique was successful in changing the internal state of the participants. When participants exhaled slowly, heart rate variability increased significantly, confirming increased parasympathetic activity. Interestingly, this breathing pattern did not change skin conductance or pupil size.
This suggests that the breathing exercises selectively activated the resting nervous system without turning off the body’s baseline arousal markers. Behaviorally, slower breathing patterns changed the way participants approached risk. Using prolonged exhalation techniques, people chose to accept risky gambles more often.
Statistical models showed that this change occurred because participants became more sensitive to the potential rewards offered by gambling. Sensitivity to potential loss did not change between the two respiratory conditions. The appeal of financial gain was especially amplified when the exhale became longer.
The researchers also confirmed that this effect was not due to changes in attention or reaction speed. Participants took less time to make decisions under slow breathing conditions. Also, they made less random selections. This means that their risk-taking behavior was calculated and deliberate.
Brain scans provided a biological explanation for this change in behavior. The researchers looked closely at functional magnetic resonance imaging data from 35 of the participants who had complete heart and brain recordings. They found that people who had the greatest increases in heart rate variability also had increased activity in two specific brain regions.
These regions were the ventromedial prefrontal cortex and the precuneus. The ventromedial prefrontal cortex is an area near the front of the brain involved in processing risk, fear, and decision-making. It plays an important role in calculating the subjective value of an option. The precuneus is located at the back of the brain and helps integrate bodily sensations and self-awareness.
Scientists suggest that breathing techniques may have sent calming physiological signals to these brain regions. This bodily input increased the weight the brain assigned to potential rewards. The physical state of the body directly altered the cognitive evaluation of choices.
Although this study provides detailed insight into the relationship between breathing and decision-making, it also has some limitations. Laboratory settings and specific financial gambling tasks may not perfectly mimic the choices made in everyday life. The researchers designed this task specifically with the avoidance of human loss in mind. This means that the potential reward is intentionally set higher than the potential loss.
Future studies should test different types of risk with a range of balanced rewards and losses to see if this respiratory effect holds universally. The scientists also want to investigate how prolonged exhalation affects decision-making in high-pressure, real-world environments. Evaluating this technology in fields such as emergency response, elite sports, and aviation could reveal whether breath control can help professionals make better choices under acute stress.
This technique is easy to learn and does not require intensive cognitive effort, making it potentially an ideal tool for rapid arousal control. The authors note that these findings may also hold promise for clinical psychology. Symptoms such as anxiety, panic disorder, and depression often involve imbalances in the autonomic nervous system and changes in the ability to perceive rewards.
By practicing slow, long exhalations, patients may have a low-cost and easily accessible way to recalibrate their physical state. This may improve their emotional processing and daily decision-making. Future research could also investigate whether breathing techniques can help manage eating behavior.
Food choices are largely influenced by reward evaluation and momentary physical state. Teaching people how to control their breathing could offer a new strategy for those struggling with dietary restrictions. Figuring out exactly how our organs communicate with the brain could pave the way for new treatments that target the body and heal the mind.
The study, “Slow Breathing Affects Interorgan Dynamics That Regulate Brain Function and Risk Behavior,” was authored by Wenhao Huang, Mine Schmidt, Ignacio Rebollo, Felix Molter, Min Pu, Beatrix Keweloh, Lok Yan Lam, Peter NC Mohr, Gabriele Bellucci, Stefan Röttger, and Soyoung Q. Park.
