Breathwork whereas listening to music could induce a blissful state in practitioners, accompanied by adjustments in blood circulate to emotion-processing mind areas, in response to a examine printed August 27, 2025, within the open-access journal PLOS One by Amy Amla Kartar from the Colasanti Lab within the Division of Scientific Neuroscience at Brighton and Sussex Medical Faculty, U.Ok., and colleagues. These adjustments happen even whereas the physique’s stress response could also be activated and are related to reporting lowered unfavourable feelings.
The recognition of breathwork as a therapeutic software for psychological misery is quickly increasing. Breathwork practices that improve ventilatory price or depth, accompanied by music, can result in altered states of consciousness (ASCs) much like these evoked by psychedelic substances. Excessive air flow breathwork (HVB) would possibly provide a non-pharmacological various, with fewer authorized and moral restrictions to large-scale adoption in medical remedy. Nonetheless, the neurobiological mechanisms and subjective expertise underlying ASCs induced by HVB haven’t been studied extensively.
To fill this data hole, Kartar and colleagues characterised ASCs induced by HVB in skilled practitioners by analyzing self-reported information from 15 people who participated on-line, 8 people who participated within the lab, and 19 people who underwent magnetic resonance imaging. Their activity consisted of a 20- to 30-minute session of cyclic respiration with out pausing whereas listening to music, adopted by a sequence of questionnaires inside half-hour of ending the breathwork session.
The outcomes confirmed that the depth of ASCs evoked by HVB was proportional to cardiovascular sympathetic activation, as indicated by a lower in coronary heart price variability, indicating a possible stress response. As well as, HVB-evoked ASCs had been related to a profound lower in blood circulate to the left operculum and posterior insula – mind areas implicated in representing the interior state of the physique, together with respiration. Additionally, regardless of HVB inflicting massive and international reductions in blood circulate to the mind, there was a progressive improve in blood circulate through the session to the appropriate amygdala and anterior hippocampus, that are mind areas concerned within the processing of emotional reminiscences. These blood circulate adjustments correlated with psychedelic experiences, demonstrating that these alterations could underlie the constructive results of this breathwork.
Throughout all experimental classes, members reported a discount in worry and unfavourable feelings, with no adversarial reactions. Throughout members and experimental settings, HVB reliably enhanced ASCs dominated by Oceanic Boundlessness (OBN), which is a time period coined by Freud in 1920 that describes a set of associated emotions together with religious expertise, insightfulness, blissful state, positively skilled depersonalization, and the expertise of unity. OBN is taken into account as a defining side of ASCs evoked by psychedelic substances, resembling psilocybin.
Based on the authors, their examine was novel and exploratory and requires replication by future analysis together with bigger pattern sizes and a management group to separate the results of music on the mind. Regardless of these limitations, the findings present a greater understanding of HVB and direct analysis to analyze its therapeutic purposes.
The authors add: “Our analysis is the primary to make use of neuroimaging to map the neurophysiological adjustments that happen throughout breathwork. Our key findings embrace that breathwork can reliably evoke profound psychedelic states. We imagine that these states are linked to adjustments within the perform of particular mind areas concerned in self-awareness, and worry and emotional reminiscence processing. We discovered that extra profound adjustments in blood circulate in particular mind areas had been linked to deeper sensations of unity, bliss, and emotional launch, collectively often known as “oceanic boundlessness.”
Amy Kartar, lead writer, provides: “Conducting this analysis was a implausible expertise. It was thrilling to discover such a novel space – whereas many individuals anecdotally acknowledge the well being advantages of breathwork, this type of fast-paced respiration has acquired little or no scientific consideration. We’re very grateful to our members for making this work attainable.”
Dr. Alessandro Colasanti, P.I., provides: “Breathwork is a strong but pure software for neuromodulation, working by way of the regulation of metabolism throughout the physique and mind. It holds large promise as a transformative therapeutic intervention for circumstances which are typically each distressing and disabling.”
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Journal Reference:
- Amy Amla Kartar, Toru Horinouchi, Balázs Örzsik, Brittany Anderson, Lottie Corridor, Duncan Bailey, Sarah Samuel, Nati Beltran, Samira Bouyagoub, Chris Racey, Yoko Nagai, Iris Asllani, Hugo Critchley, Alessandro Colasanti. Neurobiological substrates of altered states of consciousness induced by excessive air flow breathwork accompanied by music. PLOS One, 2025; 20 (8): e0329411 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0329411