Deep breathing has a powerful effect on the brain. Scientists have found that it synchronizes activity in brain regions involved in emotion and memory.
This synchronization is especially strong when you breathe through your nose. It’s also strongest when you do slow, controlled breathing. Breathing rhythms affect how well cerebrospinal fluid flows in and around the brain, a finding that could have implications for brain diseases such as Alzheimer’s.
The Lungs
Breathing aims to supply oxygen to cells throughout the body and expel carbon dioxide. It involves a network of complex mechanisms. This includes the heart, the lungs and the neural systems that control breathing.
The lungs are like bellows that expand during inhalation and compress during exhalation. They are surrounded by the ribcage on the front and the sternum on the back and the diaphragm in the middle.
Each lung is divided into sections called lobes. The right lung has three lobes and the left lung has two. These lobes are further subdivided into smaller air passages called bronchi and alveoli Breath Exercise. Alveoli look like tiny round fruit and contain the oxygen that is transferred into your blood.
The rhythm of your breath influences the activity of many brain regions involved in cognitive and emotional functions. For example, research shows that the ups and downs of your breath can influence emotions and memories. Several studies indicate that the ups and downs of your breathing can also influence how we perceive pain. For instance, a long wave of deep breathing can help attenuate pain more than short waves of shallow breathing.
The Diaphragm
The diaphragm is the primary muscle of breathing. It is a thin, flat muscle that separates the thoracic (chest) cavity from the abdominal cavity. It has a dome shape with three openings that allow nerves and blood vessels to run through it. Your heart, lungs and upper part of the esophagus are in the thoracic cavity above it, while the stomach, intestines and liver are below it in the abdominal cavity. The left and right phrenic nerves control the diaphragm’s movements.
During inhalation, the diaphragm contracts and flattens like an umbrella being opened by a handle, moving down towards your abdomen. This increases the volume of your chest cavity and creates a vacuum that pulls air into your lungs. During exhalation, the diaphragm relaxes and curves back up.
Breathing influences brain function in a wide variety of ways. For example, it affects the processing of sensory signals from your body, such as pain and emotions. These signals are processed in cortical areas that combine bottom-up input from a sensory pathway with top-down predictions about the movement of the diaphragm.
The Alveoli
In the late 1980s, neuroscientists discovered that a network of neurons in the brainstem sets the rhythm for breathing. Since then, research has shown that your breath affects activity across wide swaths of the brain, including regions involved in emotion and cognition.
Tiny, balloon-shaped air sacs called alveoli are the workhorses of your lungs. They are located at the end of bronchial tubes, and they’re where oxygen enters your bloodstream and carbon dioxide is expelled.
The oxygen molecules you breathe in move into alveoli by diffusion from capillaries. Then the oxygen molecules travel through a single layer of lung cells in an alveolus, leaving behind a thin layer of surfactant.
The surfactant enables the rapid exchange of gases, such as oxygen and carbon dioxide, between the air and blood. The alveoli are surrounded by the interstitium, which is filled with fluid, elastic fibers and bundles of banded collagen fibrils. Cells in the interstitium, called fibroblasts, produce and maintain the extracellular matrix.
The Blood Vessels
The blood vessels are a vast network of tubes that transports nutrients and oxygen to and from our body cells. The arteries carry oxygen-rich blood away from the heart, and the veins bring deoxygenated blood back toward the heart. The blood vessels also contain capillaries, which surround organs and tissues to deliver oxygen and nutrients and to take up carbon dioxide and other waste products.
If you laid out all the blood vessels in your body in a straight line, they would stretch for about 60,000 miles. Arteries, veins, and capillaries are lined by specialized cells known as endothelial cells.
Researchers at Northwestern University recently found that breathing influences how our brains process information, especially in areas involved with emotions, memories, and smells. The rhythm of our breath co-ordinates electrical activity across this network to enhance its functioning. Researchers have found that you can improve performance on lab tests as simple as detecting a faint touch and distinguishing three-dimensional objects by simply changing how you breathe.