Scientific article
English

Breathing and sense of self: visuo-respiratory conflicts alter body self-consciousness

Published inRespiratory Physiology & Neurobiology, vol. 203, p. 68-74
Publication date2014
Abstract

Bodily self-consciousness depends on the processing of interoceptive and exteroceptive signals. It can be disrupted by inducing signal conflicts. Breathing, at the crossroad between interoception and exteroception, should contribute to bodily self-consciousness. We induced visuo-respiratory conflicts in 17 subjects presented with a virtual body or a parallelepidedal object flashing synchronously or asynchronously with their breathing. A questionnaire detected illusory changes in bodily self-consciousness and breathing agency (the feeling of sensing one's breathing command). Changes in self-location were tested by measuring reaction time during mental ball drop (MBD). Synchronous illumination changed the perceived location of breathing (body: p=0.008 vs. asynchronous; object: p=0.013). It resulted in a significant change in breathing agency, but no changes in self-identification. This was corroborated by prolonged MBD reaction time (body: +0.045s, 95%CI [0.013; 0.08], p=0.007). We conclude that breathing modulates bodily self-consciousness. We also conclude that one can induce the irruption of unattended breathing into consciousness without modifying respiratory mechanics or gas exchange.

Keywords
  • Body Image
  • Consciousness/physiology
  • Emotions/physiology
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Respiration
  • Self Concept
  • Statistics
  • Nonparametric
  • Surveys and Questionnaires
  • Young Adult
Funding
  • Swiss National Science Foundation - non précisé
Citation (ISO format)
ADLER, Dan Elie et al. Breathing and sense of self: visuo-respiratory conflicts alter body self-consciousness. In: Respiratory Physiology & Neurobiology, 2014, vol. 203, p. 68–74. doi: 10.1016/j.resp.2014.08.003
Main files (1)
Article (Published version)
accessLevelRestricted
Identifiers
Journal ISSN1569-9048
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