Respiration and relaxation reopening a cold case.

This project is situated in an interesting paradox: because the respiratory system is unique in allowing voluntary control while being tied into processes of autonomic regulation, breathing instructions are typically included in clinically validated relaxation techniques and in popular stress management techniques to help people cope with everyday life stress. However, due to this voluntary control option, respiration has been mistrusted in psychophysiological research, which prefers uncontrollablephysiological indices with psychological relevance to complement (oftenalso mistrusted) verbal reports. The result is (1) underinvestigation of the role of breathing regulation in (especially positive) emotion and relaxation; (2) poor understanding of the clinically validated effects of breathing techniques on various stress-related disorders; (3) apparentcontradictions in literature. For example, the clinical literature on breathing and relaxation suggests slow regular breathing as healthy and relaxing. From a dynamic systems regulation perspective, however, healthybreathing is characterized by complex variability balancing correlated and random components of variability, while unhealthy breathing is characterized by an imbalance in variability-components. In the present project, we want to bridge the gap between psychophysiological research of breathing regulation and emotion and its applications in relaxation and stress management.

Keywords:Respiratory variability, Respiratory psychophysiology, Emotion, Relaxation, Dynamic systems perspective

Disciplines:Biological and physiological psychology, General psychology, Other psychology and cognitive sciences

Project type:PhD project