The effect of respiration on brain activity is much discussed. Neuronal activity is fundamentally rhythmic, so are breathing rhythms entrained by typical neuronal oscillation patterns? Tort et al. hypothesized that breathing frequency aids the integration of widespread information similar to the proposed function of other slow-network rhythms in visual or tactile environmental sampling. Systematic analysis revealed strong correlations between instantaneous breathing frequency and the amplitude and frequency of theta and gamma oscillations. Changes in theta activity preceded changes in breathing frequency, which in turn preceded changes in slow-gamma oscillations.
J. Neurosci. 41, 5229 (2021).
