A new study shows that slowing breathing rates can reduce anxiety-like behaviors even without any conscious effort or belief in its effects. Researchers used mice to demonstrate that the benefits come from physiological changes rather than placebo. The findings were presented at a summit in Los Angeles earlier this month.
Jack Feldman, a neuroscientist at UCLA, presented the research at the Embodied Minds Summit in Los Angeles on 3 May. His team trained mice to breathe more slowly using optogenetics, targeting neurons in the pre-Bötzinger Complex, a brainstem region that controls breathing rhythm. After four weeks, the mice maintained slower breathing and showed less fear in stressful tests compared with untrained mice.
