Breathing for Mental & Physical Health & Performance | Dr. Jack Feldman

About this video

Dr. Jack Feldman, a distinguished professor of neurobiology at UCLA credited with discovering the two major brain centres controlling breathing patterns, joins Huberman to discuss how breathing predicts and influences focus, sleep onset and waking. Huberman explains that how often people breathe, its depth, and the ratio of inhales to exhales shape mental and physical states, and that Dr. Feldman both researches and practises breathing protocols for focus and calming down. Dr. Feldman recounts seeking to demonstrate that breathing itself, not just attention, matters in mindfulness by teaching rodents a slow-breathing practice. He describes a protocol that slowed awake mice’s breathing by a factor of 10, practised 30 minutes a day for four weeks, after which the mice were tested in a standard fear conditioning paradigm with colleague Michael Fanselow, measuring freezing as an index of fearfulness, against controls given every manipulation except slowed breathing.

Key takeaways

• Dr. Feldman is credited by Huberman with discovering the brain centres controlling breathing patterns.
• Huberman explains breathing rate, depth and inhale-exhale ratio influence focus and sleep.
• Dr. Feldman describes slowing mice’s breathing by a factor of 10 in a daily practice study.
• Dr. Feldman used fear conditioning and freezing to test effects of slow breathing in rodents.
• Huberman presents breathing as a lever for customising focus and calming protocols.

Episode details: published January 10, 2022 · 789.6K views · 2:23:37 long. Summary written by Self Growth Videos from the episode itself. The science and protocols described are Andrew Huberman’s, presented for education — not medical advice. Consult a qualified professional before changing your own health practices.

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