Rhythms of the Body, Rhythms of the Brain: Respiration, Neural Oscillations, and Embodied Cognition
bioRxiv Preprint Server August 9, 2017 Somogy Varga, Detlef H. Heck 6 citations preprint
Respiration, despite being a constant rhythmic bodily process, has been largely overlooked in Embodied Cognition research. This paper argues that breathing exerts a significant, unexpected bottom-up influence on cognitive processes by modulating neural synchronization. The authors propose respiration as a model for a general mechanism through which the body affects cognition. They also suggest that respiration can play a dual pragmatic and epistemic role, reducing cognitive load through a loop-like interaction between neural and non-neural elements, drawing a parallel to the role of gesture.