{"id":1247,"date":"2017-06-14T15:00:19","date_gmt":"2017-06-14T22:00:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/meditation\/?p=1247"},"modified":"2017-06-12T18:57:40","modified_gmt":"2017-06-13T01:57:40","slug":"the-brain-breath-connection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/meditation\/2017\/06\/14\/the-brain-breath-connection\/","title":{"rendered":"The Brain-Breath Connection"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A few months ago\u00a0I wrote about the virtues of 5 deep breaths (<a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/meditation\/2017\/03\/05\/reset-with-5-deep-breaths\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Reset with 5 Deep Breaths<\/a>, 5 Mar 2017). Now I&#8217;m back with scientific news that shows\u00a0breathing affects brain function in mice. To put it briefly, there are special brain cells that connect breathing with states of arousal: sleep-wakefulness, vigilance, and emotions.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/science.sciencemag.org\/content\/355\/6332\/1411\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">&#8220;Breathing control center neurons that promote arousal in mice&#8221;<\/a> (Yackle\u00a0<em>et al.<\/em>, <a href=\"http:\/\/science.sciencemag.org\/content\/355\/6332\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Science, 31 Mar 2017<\/a>, p. 1411) summarizes its findings as follows:<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Slow, controlled breathing has been used for centuries to promote mental calming, and it is used clinically to suppress excessive arousal such as panic attacks. However, the physiological and neural basis of the relationship between breathing and higher-order brain activity is unknown. We found a neuronal subpopulation in the mouse preB\u00f6tzinger complex (preB\u00f6tC), the primary breathing rhythm generator, which regulates the balance between calm and arousal behaviors. Conditional, bilateral genetic ablation of the ~175 <em>Cdh9<\/em>\/<em>Dbx1<\/em> double-positive preB\u00f6tC neurons in adult mice left breathing intact but increased calm behaviors and decreased time in aroused states. These neurons project to, synapse on, and positively regulate noradrenergic neurons in the locus coeruleus, a brain center implicated in attention, arousal, and panic that projects throughout the brain.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>In simpler words and pictures (<a href=\"http:\/\/science.sciencemag.org\/content\/355\/6332\/1370\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">&#8220;Breathing to inspire and arouse&#8221;<\/a>, S. Sheikhbahaei, J.C. Smith, <a href=\"http:\/\/science.sciencemag.org\/content\/355\/6332\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Science, same issue<\/a>, p. 1370) the research focused on two regions in the mouse brain:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>preB\u00f6tC &#8211; a group of neurons that had been previously identified as generating\u00a0the &#8220;inspiratory rhythm&#8221; of mouse breathing, i.e., the rhythm of the in-breath. This group of cells collects\u00a0inputs from many brain regions, and then broadcasts signals to many other brain regions in return.<\/li>\n<li>locus coeruleus (LC) &#8211; another group of neurons that had been previously linked to arousal (sleep-wakefulness state, vigilance, and emotions). Like the preB\u00f6tC region, the LC region also collects inputs from many brain regions, and broadcasts signals throughout the brain and spinal cord.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Yackle\u00a0<em>et al.<\/em>\u00a0found that inside the preB\u00f6tC region was a special group of about 175 neurons with special chemical characteristics (unlike their neighbors, these cells\u00a0produced two special proteins, Cdh9 and Dbx1), and these special neurons\u00a0were directly connected to neurons in the LC. Moreover, when Yackle <em>et al.<\/em>\u00a0employed genetic engineering tools to breed mice that were missing the special set of 175 neurons, they observed that\u00a0the modified mice breathed normally (the rest of the preB\u00f6tC could still stimulate an in-breath), but they remained calm for longer periods than normal mice. For these mice\u00a0taking an in-breath could no longer stimulate arousal.<\/p>\n<p>Or, more simply, how\u00a0you <em>breathe<\/em>\u00a0is connected to how you\u00a0<em>feel<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A few months ago\u00a0I wrote about the virtues of 5 deep breaths (Reset with 5 Deep Breaths, 5 Mar 2017). Now I&#8217;m back with scientific news that shows\u00a0breathing affects brain function in mice. To put it briefly, there are special brain cells that connect breathing with states of arousal: sleep-wakefulness, vigilance, and emotions. &#8220;Breathing control [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":55,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[13,27,7,5],"class_list":["post-1247","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-breath","tag-emotions","tag-research","tag-stress"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/meditation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1247","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/meditation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/meditation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/meditation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/55"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/meditation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1247"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/meditation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1247\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1251,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/meditation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1247\/revisions\/1251"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/meditation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1247"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/meditation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1247"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/meditation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1247"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}