Enhanced conflict monitoring via a short-duration, video-assisted deep breathing in healthy young adults: an event-related potential approach through the Go/NoGo paradigm.
Kok Suen Cheng, Yun Fah Chang, Ray P S Han, Poh Foong Lee
PeerJ October 6, 2017 DOI: 10.7717/peerj.3857 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Controlled experimental study Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Population | Young adults recruited from the same environment |
| Measures | Go/NoGo task, event-related potential (ERP) NoGo N2 amplitude at Fz, Cz, and Pz |
| Keywords | Event-related potential Conflict monitoring Go/nogo task Deep breathing Mindfulness practices Practice duration |
| Key findings | At follow-up, participants who practiced 5 minutes of guided deep breathing showed a larger NoGo N2 amplitude than controls, which the authors interpret as enhanced conflict monitoring. NoGo N2 amplitude was inversely related to breathing duration at follow-up, and 5 minutes was identified as the optimal practice duration. The authors state this is the first study to establish a relationship between deep breathing and conflict monitoring through ERP. |
Abstract
Objectives: Practitioners of mindfulness are reported to have greater cognitive control especially in conflict monitoring, response inhibition and sustained attention. However, due to the various existing methods in each mindfulness practices and also, the high commitment factor, a barrier still exists for an individual to pick up the practices. Therefore, the effect of short duration deep breathing on the cognitive control is investigated here.
Methods: Short duration guided deep breathing videos consisting of 5, 7 and 9 min respectively were created and used on subjects training. The effect on cognitive control was assessed using a Go/NoGo task along with event-related potential (ERP) measurements at Fz, Cz, and Pz.
Results: From the study, the significant outcome showed at the follow-up session in which participants engaged for 5 min deep breathing group showed a profound NoGo N2 amplitude increment as compared to the control group, indicating an enhanced conflict monitoring ability. An inverse relationship between the NoGo N2 amplitude and the breathing duration is observed as well at the follow-up session.
Conclusion: These results indicated the possibility of performing short duration deep breathing guided by a video to achieve an enhanced conflict monitoring as an alternative to other mindfulness practices and 5 min is found to be the optimum practice duration. Significant: This study is the first to establish a relationship between deep breathing and conflict monitoring through ERP. The study population of young adults taken from the same environment reduces the variance in ERP results due to age and environment. Limitation: A larger sample size would provide a greater statistical power. A longer duration of deep breathing should be investigated to further clarify the relationship between the practice duration and the NoGo N2 amplitude. The result can be split by gender and analyzed separately due to the different brain structure of males and females.
Citations in the library
Cited by 3
- Mapping meditative states and stages with electrophysiology: concepts, classifications, and methods. Current Opinion in Psychology August 1, 2019
- Mindfulness meditators show altered distributions of early and late neural activity markers of attention in a response inhibition task PLoS One August 6, 2019
- Mapping Meditative States and Stages with Electrophysiology: Concepts, Classifications, and Methods October 18, 2018
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