Abstract
Anxiety is an interactive disorder of the mind and body, characterized
by excessive worry about uncertain future events and a dysfunction of
the autonomic nervous system. Previous studies have shown that slow,
deep breathing can affect the body’s internal organs by increasing the
activity levels of the vagus nerve, reducing physical tension, and
anxiety. Although we know that slow and deep breathing techniques can
effectively regulate anxiety and other emotions, the psychological and
neurophysiological mechanisms of slow breathing on anxiety have not been
systematically explored. In the study, we combined the paced breathing
task with the threat uncertainty task for the first time to investigate
the role of slow breathing in regulating anxiety. Here we investigated
this question, using Spectral analysis of EEG to assess brain activity
relating respiratory rate and he mechanism of respiratory rate impact on
the anxious. Twenty-seven individuals participated in the experiment,
which followed a 2 (respiratory rate: fast breathing, slow breathing) ×
2 (certainty: certain, uncertain). The results of showed that: (1) Slow
breathing effectively reduced anxiety, the valence and arousal are lower
under the slow breathing. (2) The EEG of fast and slow breathing showed
different characteristics. The delta, theta and alpha EEG power are
increased during the slow-paced breathing. (3) The EEG of Respiratory
rate and certainty had a significant effect on the theta power. When
individuals are faced with uncertain information the theta EEG power
decreased during the slow-paced breathing, however, the theta EEG power
increased during the fast-paced breathing.