Often, when we’re facing all of the days stresses and life seems to be getting the better of us, we look to the past about what we could have done to make such anxiety inducing moments a little easier to bear.

Whilst there are powerful tools that aim to bring balance in our lives like exercise, good sleep, nutrition, social connection etc. scientists are working on developing tools that allow us to push back on stress in real time - the quickest dependable method being the Physiological Sigh.

When we are stressed, facing a mountain of tasks ahead of us, the delicate sacs in the lungs called alveoli can collapse, compromising the exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide. The stress further induces a change in our typical breathing rate and pattern - shifting the neural balance towards the sympathetic nervous system (the one associated with heightened alertness i.e. fight or flight).

Alveoli have a small amount of fluid in them that causes them to remain collapsed (imagine a deflated balloon with some fluid inside, keeping the sides of the balloon stuck together) - as a result, they require a particular stimulus to re-inflate. This is why on average, humans sigh every 5 minutes.

Leveraging the ability to control our diaphragm and breathing to interrupt this shift is the key to bringing back balance and regaining control.

A study published in 2023 compared the impact of three different daily 5-minute breathwork (BW) exercises compared with an equivalent period of mindfulness meditation (MM) over a month long period. The chart below shows the overall design of the study, with the ‘Cyclic Sighing’ group representing the ‘cycling’ of the Physiological Sigh.

n = number of participants, the arrows represent the order in which breaths are taken and the corresponding numbers indicate the approximate ratio between the breaths.

THE RESULTS

The study measured positive and negative affect (PANAS), which is essentially positive and negative emotion - with a favourable outcome being an increase in positive affect and decrease in negative affect. They also measured state (situational/short term) and trait (long-term) anxiety.

It was concluded that:

• Both MM and BW groups experienced significant increases in daily positive emotions and reductions in negative emotions

• Both groups also saw a significant reduction in state anxiety though no change in trait anxiety - highlighting the use of the PS as an effective real-time tool for situational anxiety or moments of heightened arousal

• The BW groups saw a significantly higher reduction in respiratory rate than the MM group

The authors of the study then looked into the individual BW data to see if one practice was superior and found the following:

• The Cyclic Sighing group had a significantly higher increase in positive emotions than those in the MM group and from the other BW groups

• Cyclic Sighing also had a significant interaction with cumulative days on the protocol - suggesting that participants benefited more from the exercise the more days they did it, which was not prominent in the other groups

Tenacity and willpower are described as the ability to persist in the face of a challenge. Both qualities have been under increased attention as they contribute and relate to better academic achievement, career opportunities and health outcomes.

Recent studies suggest that a portion of the brain called the anterior midcingulate cortex (aMCC) plays a crucial role in tenacity as it performs the cost/benefit analysis necessary - essentially weighing up whether the reward is worth the effort/cost of the action required to obtain it.

Interestingly clinical research has found that when humans sustain damage to the aMCC or its connections:

• it led to an indifference to the environment, change in personality/character and a slow/groggy or comatose state

• they suffer motivational impairment, apathy (lack of interest or concern) and an inability to plan for long term goals

A 2005 study examined the motivational disruption for a patient with aMCC. When presented with a series of tasks at varying difficulty, the patient was able to perform the tasks unimpaired but reported no sense of effort or change in effort as the difficulty increased. There was also no physiological evidence of increased effort exertion, which in the control group presented as an increase in skin conductance (due to increased sweating at higher difficulty).

A separate study used direct electrical stimulation of the aMCC on two patients. Both expressed a sense of impending ‘challenge’ or ‘worry’ but remained motivated and aware that they would overcome the challenge. One of the patients likened the feeling to heading through a storm. When cued whether this feeling was positive or negative, he reported that it was a positive feeling and that he had to push harder to try and get through.

Multiple recent studies have identified a remarkable subgroup of elderly people known as ‘super-agers’ - whose performance on some cognitive measures is equivalent to the middle aged and even young adults. The most prevalent differences between super-agers and typical older adults involve the structure and function of the aMCC. Super-agers show greater thickness in the aMCC and higher connectivity between the aMCC and other major nodes in the brain vs. typical older adults.

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