Slow breathing impacts inter-organ dynamics modulating brain function and risk behavior.

Prolonged exhalation increases risky choices by enhancing reward sensitivity and cardiac parasympathetic activity during decision-making.

• Why it matters: Understanding how voluntary autonomic regulation influences decision-making can inform interventions for risk-related behaviors and improve models of body-brain interactions.
• What they did: The study involved participants following different breathing protocols while making risky decisions, with neural and physiological activity measured using fMRI and multichannel monitoring, focusing on parasympathetic activity and brain responses.
• The result: Individuals with greater parasympathetic upregulation showed stronger reward-related responses in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex and precuneus, indicating breathing-based interventions can modulate neuro-cardiac pathways involved in value-based choices.