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Cited by 509Mindfulness and Compassion InterventionsPsychosomatic Disorders and Their TreatmentsNeuroscience of respiration and sleep

The Effect of Diaphragmatic Breathing on Attention, Negative Affect and Stress in Healthy Adults

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Ma, Xiao, Yue, Zi-Qi, Gong, Zhu-Qing, Zhang, Hong, Duan, Nai-Yue, Shi, Yu-Tong, Wei, Gao-Xia, Li, You-Fa·2017·Frontiers in Psychology
DOI 10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00874PMC PMC5455070
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Abstract

A growing number of empirical studies have revealed that diaphragmatic breathing may trigger body relaxation responses and benefit both physical and mental health. However, the specific benefits of diaphragmatic breathing on mental health remain largely unknown. The present study aimed to investigate the effect of diaphragmatic breathing on cognition, affect, and cortisol responses to stress. Forty participants were randomly assigned to either a breathing intervention group (BIG) or a control group (CG). The BIG received intensive training for 20 sessions, implemented over 8 weeks, employing a real-time feedback device, and an average respiratory rate of 4 breaths/min, while the CG did not receive this treatment. All participants completed pre- and post-tests of sustained attention and affect. Additionally, pre-test and post-test salivary cortisol concentrations were determined in both groups. The findings suggested that the BIG showed a significant decrease in negative affect after intervention, compared to baseline. In the diaphragmatic breathing condition, there was a significant interaction effect of group by time on sustained attention, whereby the BIG showed significantly increased sustained attention after training, compared to baseline. There was a significant interaction effect of group and time in the diaphragmatic breathing condition on cortisol levels, whereby the BIG had a significantly lower cortisol level after training, while the CG showed no significant change in cortisol levels. In conclusion, diaphragmatic breathing could improve sustained attention, affect, and cortisol levels. This study provided evidence demonstrating the effect of diaphragmatic breathing, a mind-body practice, on mental function, from a health psychology approach, which has important implications for health promotion in healthy individuals.

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  • This study showed that the stress hormone cortisol was lower in people undergoing slow-paced breathwork compared to controls.

    “Nonetheless, this study showed that the stress hormone cortisol was lower in people undergoing slow-paced breathwork compared to controls96.”

    From Effect of breathwork on stress and mental health: A meta-analysis of randomised-controlled trials (2023) · cites this paper as [96]

    The Results (Salivary Cortisol; page unavailable) report that cortisol fell significantly after training in the slow-breathing group but did not change significantly in controls. They do not establish that cortisol levels were lower in the breathing group than in controls; the reported main effect of group was not significant. (LLM, conf=0.87)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

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Authors
Ma, X., Yue, Z.-Q., Gong, Z.-Q., Zhang, H., Duan, N.-Y., Shi, Y.-T., Wei, G.-X., & Li, Y.-F.
Affiliations
  • Beijing Normal University (CN)
  • Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN)
  • Harvard University (US)
Corresponding author
  • Wei, Gao-Xia
  • Li, You-Fa
ORCID
Venue
Frontiers in Psychology
Publisher
Frontiers Media SA
Published
2017-06-06
Volume
8
Pages
874-874
ISSN
1664-1078 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00874
PMC
PMC5455070
OpenAlex
W2621012322
Cited by
509
References
19
Citations by year
2026: 57 · 2025: 94 · 2024: 82 · 2023: 72 · 2022: 58 · 2021: 62 · 2020: 51 · 2019: 21 · 2018: 11 · 2017: 1
FWCI
28.49
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
cc-by
Locations
  • Frontiers in Psychology (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Digital Access to Scholarship at Harvard (DASH) (Harvard University) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
  • Institutional Repository of Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences) (submittedVersion)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion)
Funders
  • National Natural Science Foundation of China (31671163)
  • Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China (16YJC890012)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Mindfulness and Compassion Interventions
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Psychosomatic Disorders and Their Treatments
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Endocrine and Autonomic Systems › Neuroscience of respiration and sleep
Keywords
diaphragmatic breathing, sustained attention, negative affect, stress, salivary cortisol, mind-body practices, breathing interventions, real-time feedback, relaxation response, mental health, healthy adults

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