Breathwork-Induced Psychedelic Experiences Modulate Neural Dynamics
bioRxiv – February 19, 2024
Source: medRxiv/bioRxiv/arXiv
Summary
Breathwork can induce profound altered states of consciousness, akin to psychedelic experiences. In a study with 14 participants over 28 sessions, researchers used portable EEG to explore how breathwork affects the brain. They discovered that these experiences correlated with increased neural complexity, suggesting a rich tapestry of positive emotional states and insights during practice.
Abstract
Breathwork is an understudied school of practices involving intentional respiratory modulation to induce an altered state of consciousness (ASC). We simultaneously investigate the phenomenological and neural dynamics of breathwork by combining Temporal Experience Tracing, a quantitative methodology that preserves the temporal dynamics of subjective experience, with low-density portable EEG devices. Fourteen novice participants completed a course of up to 28 breathwork sessions – of 20, 40 or 60 minutes – in 28 days, yielding a neurophenomenological dataset of 301 breathwork sessions. Using hypothesis-driven and data-driven approaches, we found that ‘psychedelic-like’ subjective experiences were associated with increased neural Lempel-Ziv complexity during breathwork. Exploratory analyses showed that the aperiodic exponent of the power spectral density – but not oscillatory alpha power – yielded similar neurophenomenological associations. Non-linear neural features, like complexity and the aperiodic exponent, neurally map both a multidimensional data-driven composite of positive experiences, and hypothesis-driven aspects of psychedelic-like experience states such as high bliss.