Home // International Journal On Advances in Life Sciences, volume 10, numbers 1 and 2, 2018 // View article

Efficacy of Involuntary Deep Breathing by Postural-Respiration Feedback Control System

Authors:
Samith S. Herath
Kazuki Hayakawa
Osamu Sakai
Ryoma Sekiya
Shusaku Nomura

Keywords: breathing control; posture feedback; respiration

Abstract:
This study was undertaken to quantify heart rate dynamics and interactions during sequential use of a postural-respiration feedback regulation control system. The bent shape of the human back makes it easier to exhale air from the lungs, but challenging to inhale. On the other hand, when a human being leans over backwards, it becomes difficult to exhale, but easier to inhale. This simple feature opens up the possibility of regulating human breathing involuntarily through posture control. We developed and tested a postural-respiration feedback regulation control system. The process of the posture control architecture depends on an air chamber placed under the subject’s back. For this experiment, subjects had to lie on a bed, and the subjects’ respiration cycle was synchronized with the inflation and deflation of the air chamber. We analyzed the beat-to-beat heart rate and the continuous breathing signal data gathered from ten male university students. We investigated the hypothesis that the use of a synchronously controlled postural-respiration feedback control system would yield positive psychophysiological benefits. The heart rate and respiratory dynamics from the deep breathing response and segmented breathing were similar. The results indicate that deep breathing was successfully induced when posture control was precisely synchronized with the subject’s own respiration. The implications of these findings for both future research and practice are addressed in a comprehensive discussion.

Pages: 117 to 126

Copyright: Copyright (c) to authors, 2018. Used with permission.

Publication date: June 30, 2018

Published in: journal

ISSN: 1942-2660