A new study published in the journal Neuron provides evidence that controlling our breathing rhythm can actively shape how we make choices involving risk. The findings indicate that exhaling for longer periods increases activity in the body’s resting nervous system, which in turn makes the brain more sensitive to potential rewards. This suggests that simple breathing techniques could serve as a practical tool for altering our decision-making behavior in everyday 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 accelerates. This physical arousal tends to make people more sensitive to potential losses, often resulting in cautious, risk-avoidant behavior. This stress response is controlled by the sympathetic nervous system, a network of nerves 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, slowing the heart rate and promoting a sense of calm. Past 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 at 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 inhaling briefly and exhaling slowly. Physiologically, exhalation is linked to a decrease in heart rate, which increases the natural variations in time between heartbeats.
The researchers aimed to find out if this intentional breathing method could boost parasympathetic activity in real time. They also wanted to understand if such a physical shift would alter how the brain evaluates risky options. By looking at the connection between the heart, the lungs, and the brain, the scientists hoped to uncover a biological pathway that links conscious breathing to complex cognitive processes.
To test their ideas, the researchers recruited healthy adults for a laboratory experiment. The final group included 41 participants, with an average age of about 25 years. The scientists used a within-subject design, meaning every participant completed a gambling task under two different breathing conditions, allowing the researchers to compare each person’s behavior against their own baseline.
In one condition, participants breathed naturally, a state referred to as eupnea. The researchers first recorded each individual’s normal breathing rhythm and created a customized visual pacing bar on a screen for them to follow. In the other condition, the participants followed a prolonged exhalation pattern. This required inhaling for two seconds and exhaling for eight seconds, again guided by a visual progress bar.
During both breathing exercises, participants were presented with a series of gambles. Each option carried a 50 percent chance of winning a monetary reward ranging from 10 to 30 euros, and a 50 percent chance of losing a specific amount ranging from 5 to 15 euros. The participants had a maximum of three seconds to decide whether to accept or reject the gamble using a four-point scale.
To keep the participants engaged, they were told that three of their decisions would be randomly selected at the end of the study. These selected choices were then paid out using real money. This ensured that the participants took the gambling task seriously and made realistic choices.
As the participants made these choices, the research team recorded their physical responses using multiple tools. They monitored heart activity with electrocardiograms and pulse sensors to measure heart rate variability. Heart rate variability refers to the fluctuation in time between successive heartbeats. Higher heart rate variability is a well-known marker of increased parasympathetic activity.
The scientists also measured skin conductance and pupil size using specialized trackers. These physical responses indicate sympathetic nervous system activity. At the same time, the participants laid inside a functional magnetic resonance imaging scanner. This machine tracks blood flow in the brain, allowing the scientists to observe which neural regions became active during the decision-making process.
The measurements revealed that the prolonged exhalation technique successfully changed the participants’ internal states. Heart rate variability increased significantly when participants exhaled slowly, confirming an increase in parasympathetic activity. Interestingly, this breathing pattern did not change skin conductance or pupil size.
This suggests the breathing technique selectively activated the resting nervous system without turning off the body’s baseline arousal markers. Behaviorally, the slow breathing pattern changed how participants approached risk. When using the prolonged exhalation technique, individuals chose to accept the risky gambles more often.
The statistical models indicated that this shift happened because the participants became more sensitive to the potential rewards offered by the gambles. Their sensitivity to potential losses did not change between the two breathing conditions. The longer exhalations specifically amplified the appeal of the monetary gains.
The researchers also confirmed that this effect was not due to changes in attention or response speed. The participants did not take longer to make their decisions under the slow breathing condition. They also did not make more random choices, meaning their risk-taking behavior was calculated and intentional.
The brain scans provided a biological explanation for this behavioral shift. The researchers looked closely at the functional magnetic resonance imaging data for 35 of the participants who had complete heart and brain recordings. They found that individuals who experienced the largest increases in heart rate variability also showed heightened activity in two specific brain areas.
These areas were the ventromedial prefrontal cortex and the precuneus. The ventromedial prefrontal cortex is a region near the front of the brain involved in processing risk, fear, and decision-making. It plays a major role in calculating the subjective value of an option. The precuneus, located toward the back of the brain, helps integrate bodily sensations with self-awareness.
The scientists suggest that the breathing technique sent calming physiological signals to these brain areas. This bodily input in turn increased the weight the brain assigned to potential rewards. The physical state of the body directly altered the cognitive evaluation of the choices.
Although the study provides detailed insights into the connection between breathing and decision-making, it does have some limitations. The laboratory setting and the specific monetary gambling task might not perfectly mimic choices made in daily life. The researchers designed the task specifically to account for human loss aversion, meaning the potential rewards were deliberately set higher than the potential losses.
Future studies will need to test different types of risks with balanced reward and loss ranges to see if this breathing effect applies universally. The scientists also hope to explore how prolonged exhalation might influence decision-making in high-pressure, real-world environments. Evaluating the technique in fields like emergency response, elite sports, or aviation could reveal whether controlled breathing helps professionals make better choices under acute stress.
Because the technique is easy to learn and does not require intense cognitive effort, it could be an ideal tool for rapid arousal regulation. The authors note that these findings might also hold promise for clinical psychology. Conditions like anxiety, panic disorders, and depression often involve imbalances in the autonomic nervous system and an altered ability to perceive rewards.
By practicing slow, extended exhalation, patients might have a low-cost, accessible way to recalibrate their physical state. This could potentially improve their emotional processing and daily decision-making. Future research could also examine if breathing techniques might help manage eating behaviors.
Food choices are heavily driven by reward evaluation and momentary bodily states. Teaching people to control their breathing could offer a new strategy for populations struggling with dietary regulation. Uncovering the exact ways our organs communicate with our brain could pave the way for novel treatments that target the body to heal the mind.
The study, “Slow breathing impacts inter-organ dynamics modulating brain function and risk behavior,” was authored by Wenhao Huang, Mine Schmidt, Ignacio Rebollo, Felix Molter, Min Pu, Beatrix Keweloh, Lok Yan Lam, Peter N.C. Mohr, Gabriele Bellucci, Stefan Röttger, and Soyoung Q. Park.