The Eyes Have It: How Our Breathing Changes Our Pupils
In a surprising discovery, scientists have found that our pupils — those tiny black circles in the middle of our eyes — do something unexpected when we breathe. This finding overturns what we’ve long believed about the connection between our breathing and how our pupils behave.
New Findings Challenge Old Assumptions
For years, we thought that pupils dilate and become large when we inhale, and constrict to their smallest size when we exhale. However, new research presents evidence that suggests the opposite is true. A team of researchers from the Department of Clinical Neuroscience at Karolinska Institutet conducted three different experiments to get to the bottom of this mystery.
What The Experiments Revealed
The researchers wanted to see how pupil size changed during different types of breathing and activities. They organized two of their experiments as “pre-registered,” meaning they planned and recorded their methods in advance to ensure their findings were as reliable as possible. These experiments included both resting tasks and a visual perception task, and participants had to breathe through their nose and mouth under various conditions.
The results were both clear and consistent. It turns out pupils are actually smallest around the start of inhalation and largest around the peak of exhalation. This pattern was observed across all conditions, whether the participants were resting or engaged in a task.
This surprising discovery has been named the Respiratory-Pupillary Phase Effect (RPPE). It contradicts the old belief that pupils are largest during inhalation and smallest during exhalation. According to the researchers, the processes of dilation and constriction overlap with both phases of breathing, adding a fascinating complexity to our understanding of how our bodies work.
Why is RPPE Important?
The consistency and significance of these findings are prompting scientists to call for more research. They want to understand the underlying mechanisms of RPPE and its potential impact on human behavior. For instance, how might this discovery affect our understanding of attention, stress, or even mental health?
Researchers believe that studying RPPE could offer fresh insights into how our physical responses relate to our daily lives. This research, which has been uploaded to the preprint server bioRxiv and is awaiting peer review, aims to delve deeper into understanding these connections.
The Human Behavioral Impact of RPPE
If pupil size changes with our breathing, it could have far-reaching implications for fields like psychology and neuroscience. For example, attention spans might be linked more closely to our breathing than previously thought. Stress levels, too, could show a more direct connection to not just our heartbeat but our breathing patterns.
- Attention: The simple act of breathing could influence where and how we direct our attention.
- Stress: Knowing more about RPPE might help us find new ways to manage stress and anxiety.
- Mental Health: Understanding how RPPE works could impact how we approach therapies for various mental health conditions.
Looking Ahead
While more research is certainly needed to fully understand RPPE, this study has already opened up a new avenue of investigation in neuroscience. The link between breathing and pupil size might seem like a small detail, but it could be key to unlocking new ways of improving our mental well-being and cognitive functions.
As scientists dig deeper into RPPE, we might soon discover even more about the intricate connections between our physical responses and our daily lives.
Published By: Sibu Kumar Tripathi
Published On: Jul 22, 2024
also read:NeuroAI: Revolutionizing Artificial Intelligence with Human Brain-Inspired Efficiency
Deepika 
Mehek