Inhalation boosts perceptual awareness and decision speed.
Journal of neurophysiology September 1, 2023 Ludovic Molle, Alexandre Coste, Charles-Etienne Benoit et al.
Inhalation, compared with exhalation, improves perceptual awareness and speeds up objective decision-making without impairing accuracy. The breathing phase modulates attention, with exhalation linked to reduced awareness and slower decisions. The study recorded the breathing rhythms of 30 humans performing a near-threshold decision-making task involving a liminal Gabor stimulus. The findings suggest that breathing shapes the emergence of subjective experience and decision-making, building on questions about the physiological mechanisms underlying consciousness.