Coordination between Breathing and Finger Tracking in Man

Abstract

Arm and leg movements are known to produce temporal pattern changes of breathing. This can be interpreted as coordination, as defined by von Holst (1939). The aim of the present study was to find whether breathing exerts an influence in a reverse direction on a nonrespiratory movement as well. A pursuit tracking test was used, and test individuals (N = 19) were instructed to track a visually presented step function by flexion or extension of their right index finger. Velocity and precision of the step responses proved to be dependent on their relation to the breathing time course; the differences between inspiratory and expiratory responses were smaller than those within each half-cycle. The movements were performed more rapidly and more precisely in about the middle of each half-cycle than immediately after the respiratory phase transition or during the second half of each inspiration or expiration. Discontinuous short-lasting motor actions exerted a coordinative influence on respiration comparablewith that of periodical events: Breaths coinciding with step responses were shortened, preferably when the preset step was given early in the inspiration. It was hypothesized that the reciprocal effect between both motor actions changes periodically. In the first part of each respiratory half-cycle, the respiratory rhythm exerts only a weak influence on additional movements, but it can be altered easily by simultaneous motor processes. Toward the respiratory phase-switching, the respiratory rhythm behaves more stably against coordinative influences and becomes capable of impairing an additional movement.

Phase-dependence of breathing and finger tracking movements during normocapnia and hypercapnia

“…Motor activity can cause modulations of the time course of respiration which are mediated by interactions in the central nervous system even when entrainment or rhythmical coordination (as de®ned by von Holst 1939) is not present (Hill et al 1988;Perse gol et al 1988;Raûler et al 1996). The reduction of t tot [S A 1] during the tracking tests compared to breathing at rest (see Table 1) and of t tot [S] compared to control breaths (see Fig.…”

“…Very few experiments have given evidence of eects of breathing on simultaneous motor activities (Perse gol et al 1988;Viala 1986;Raûler et al 1990Raûler et al ,1996Raûler and Kohl 1996a).…”

Impact Loading and Locomotor-Respiratory Coordination Significantly Influence Breathing Dynamics in Running Humans

“…Furthermore, evidence suggests coupling improves breathing efficiency in some circumstances [2], [15], [24]. On the other hand, humans also couple breathing frequency with low impact, non-locomotor movements such as finger and arm tracking [25], [26]. Thus, large mechanical interactions are not required to induce rhythmic coupling.…”

Breathing as a Fundamental Rhythm of Brain Function

“…In humans, for example, phase-locking with respiration has been observed for visual signal detection (Flexman et al, 1974) eye movements (Rittweger and Pöpel, 1998; Rassler and Raabe, 2003), the temporal grouping of pianistic finger movements (Ebert et al, 2002), reaction time to visual (Li et al, 2012) and auditory (Gallego et al, 1991) stimuli, and grip-force (Li and Laskin, 2006). Rassler et al (1996) reported that response latency, tracking-precision and movement duration of finger movements made to track a visual target showed significant respiratory-phase-dependent differences and that the respiratory-phase-dependence differed between finger flexion and extension movements (Rassler, 2000). In mice, movements of the mystacial whiskers are phase-locked to respiration (Cao et al, 2012; Moore et al, 2013).…”