Overview: Studies have revealed a potential link between respiration and changes in neural activity in animal models.
sauce: Pennsylvania
Mental health professionals and meditation experts have long believed in the ability of deliberate breathing to bring about inner calm, but scientists are not entirely sure how the brain is involved in the process. does not understand
Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and electrophysiology, researchers at the Pennsylvania State University School of Engineering identified a potential link between respiration and changes in neural activity in rats.
their result is e-lifeThe researchers used a simultaneous multimodal technique to filter out the noise normally associated with brain imaging and pinpoint where respiration regulates neural activity.
“There have been nearly a million papers published on fMRI, a noninvasive imaging technique that allows researchers to study brain activity in real time,” said the Pennsylvania State Center for Neuroengineering. said Nanyin Zhang, Founding Director and Professor of Biomedical Sciences. engineering.
“Imaging researchers believed that respiration in fMRI imaging was a non-neural physiological artifact, such as heartbeat and body movement. It introduces the idea that there is: it influences the fMRI signal by modulating neural activity.”
By using fMRI to scan the EEG of resting rodents under anesthesia, researchers revealed a network of brain regions involved in respiration.
“Breathing is a common need of almost every living animal,” says Zhang. “We know that respiration is controlled by areas of the brainstem.
In conjunction with fMRI, the researchers used neuroelectrophysiology, which measures the electrical properties and signals of the nervous system, to study the cingulate cortex (a brain region in the center of the cerebral hemisphere and associated with emotional response and regulation). Associated neural activity with respiration.
Using fMRI and electrophysiology simultaneously, researchers were able to elicit non-neural-related fMRI signal changes during data collection, such as exercise and carbon dioxide exhalation.
This finding provides insight into how neural activity and fMRI signals are related at rest and will aid future imaging studies to understand how neurovascular signals change at rest. It’s possible, said Zhang.
“We measured how brain activity fluctuates with the rhythm of breathing when the animal breathes,” Zhang said. “Extending this approach to humans may provide mechanistic insight into how breathing control common to meditative practices can help reduce stress and anxiety.”
According to Zhang, the correlation between neural activity in the cingulate cortex and respiratory rhythm may indicate that respiratory rhythm can influence emotional state.
“We often breathe faster when we’re anxious,” says Zhang. “In response, we sometimes take deep breaths, or tend to hold our breath when we are concentrating. These indicate that breathing can affect brain function. For example, if you need to change your brain function, your breath can control your emotions, and our findings support that idea.”
Zhang said future research will focus on observing the brains of human subjects during meditation to analyze a more direct relationship between slow, purposeful breathing and neural activity. may apply.
“Our understanding of what’s going on in the brain is still superficial,” says Zhang. “If researchers replicate human studies using the same techniques, they may be able to explain how meditation modulates neural activity in the brain.”
About this neuroscience research news
author: Mariah Chuplinski
sauce: Pennsylvania
contact: Mariah Chuprinski – Pennsylvania State University
image: image is public domain
See also
Original research: open access.
“Neural underpinnings of respiration-associated resting-state fMRI networksby Wenyu Tu et al. e-life
Overview
Neural underpinnings of respiration-associated resting-state fMRI networks
Breathing can induce movement and CO2 Fluctuations during resting-state fMRI (rsfMRI) scans lead to non-neural artifacts in the rsfMRI signal. Meanwhile, as an important physiological process, respiration can directly drive changes in neural activity in the brain, which may modulate rsfMRI signals.
Nevertheless, this potential neural component in the relationship between respiration and fMRI has remained largely unexplored. To elucidate this question, here we simultaneously recorded electrophysiology, rsfMRI, and respiratory signals in rats.
Our data show that respiration is indeed associated with changes in neural activity, and the phase between slow respiration changes and the gamma-band power of electrophysiological signals recorded in the anterior cingulate cortex Proven by synchronous relationships.
Interestingly, slow breathing fluctuations are also associated with a characteristic rsfMRI network mediated by gamma-band neural activity. Moreover, this respiration-related brain network disappears when neuronal activity throughout the brain is isoelectrically silenced while respiration is maintained, further confirming the necessary role of neuronal activity in this network.
Taken together, this study identifies a respiration-related brain network underpinned by neural activity. This represents a novel element in the relationship between respiration and rsfMRI, distinct from respiration-related rsfMRI artifacts. It opens new avenues for investigating interactions between respiration, neural activity, and resting brain networks in both healthy and diseased conditions.
