Intensive breathwork can produce marked changes in cerebral blood flow and in the way key brain networks communicate, according to a brain-imaging study presented at the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology Congress in Munich.
The study examined 30 healthy, experienced breathwork practitioners as they performed a high-ventilation breathing practice during MRI scanning. Participants reported strong alterations in consciousness, including changed perception, vivid mental imagery, a sense of unity and shifts in self-experience. The researchers said those reports resembled some effects associated with psychedelic drugs, although visual effects were less pronounced.
Blood flow fell during the breathing session
On average, global gray-matter cerebral blood flow declined by about 45% during the session. The reported average fell from 16.24 to 9.81 milliliters per 100 grams of tissue per minute.
That striking physiological change did not, by itself, appear to explain how intense each participant’s subjective experience became. Instead, the researchers found that stronger reported altered states were associated with greater changes in the brain’s default mode network.
The default mode network is involved in self-reflection and self-related thinking. Its role in the study points toward brain-network communication as an important part of the breathwork experience, rather than treating reduced blood flow as the sole explanation.
An altered state without a drug
Participants predominantly described what the researchers called an oceanic state: a deep feeling of connection to the universe. The experience was compared with that of a moderate to high dose of LSD or psilocybin, while remaining distinct from those drug-induced states.
Lead researcher Christian Schmitz of the Central Institute of Mental Health in Mannheim, Germany, said intensive breathwork practitioners have long reported profound changes in perception and self-experience, but the mechanisms behind those reports have remained poorly understood. The MRI results connect those reports to both substantial changes in cerebral blood flow and altered communication among key networks.
The work is notable because it studies the practice as it happens, rather than relying only on retrospective descriptions. Combining MRI measurements with participants’ accounts gives researchers a way to compare the physical changes occurring in the brain with the character and intensity of the experience.
Why the network finding matters
The results suggest a more nuanced interpretation of intensive breathwork than a simple cause-and-effect account based on circulation. Reduced cerebral blood flow was observed across the group, but the reported intensity of the altered state tracked more closely with changes involving the default mode network.
That distinction matters for future research. If network communication is central to the experience, studies may need to examine not only how much blood reaches the brain during high-ventilation practices, but also how systems involved in self-related thought change their coordination.
The study does not establish that breathwork has the same effects, mechanisms or clinical uses as psychedelic drugs. It instead reports similarities in some participant-reported experiences and identifies brain measures that changed during the exercise. The researchers describe the findings as evidence for further investigation, not as proof of a therapeutic intervention.
Therapeutic claims remain untested
Breathwork is legal, inexpensive and nonpharmacological, features that may help explain growing interest in its possible therapeutic role. But the researchers cautioned that controlled trials are needed before drawing conclusions about clinical benefit.
The current group was also limited to healthy people who already had experience with the practice. That design is useful for studying an intense session in participants familiar with it, but it does not show how people new to breathwork, people with health conditions or clinical populations would respond.
For now, the study offers a window into a practice often discussed in experiential terms. It shows that intensive breathing can coincide with large, measurable changes in the brain and with altered states that participants describe as meaningful. The next question is whether those observations can be replicated, characterized more precisely and tested safely in controlled therapeutic research.
This article is based on reporting by Medical Xpress. Read the original article.
Originally published on medicalxpress.com
