A research team from Hackensack Meridian Health and its Center for Discovery and Innovation (CDI) has published a study exploring the relationship between breathing patterns and brain activity during different states of consciousness. The findings, which appear in The Journal of Neuroscience, indicate that during the deepest phase of non-REM sleep, breathing becomes largely independent from brain wave activity.
The study was led by Bon-Mi Gu, Ph.D., with contributions from Kolsoum Dehdar, Ph.D., and Elliot Neuberg. The team recently moved from the Neuroscience Institute at Hackensack Meridian JFK University Medical Center to the CDI. Their research focused on the basal ganglia, particularly the substantia nigra—a region involved in motor control and dopamine production.
"In this study, we provide the first detailed characterization of respiration-neural coupling across multiple states - including quiet wakefulness, non-REM sleep, REM sleep, and anesthesia - in the substantia nigra and the primary motor cortex, two regions not previously studied in this context," wrote the authors.
To conduct their research, scientists monitored mice through various states: quiet wakefulness, different stages of sleep—including both REM and non-REM phases—and under ketamine anesthesia. They compared electrical brain signals with breathing patterns to assess how these processes interacted.
The researchers observed differences in how closely breathing and brain activity were linked across all conditions. However, they consistently found that during deep non-REM sleep—especially when slow delta waves were prominent—breathing operated more independently from neural rhythms.
"The strength of respiration-neural coupling varied across multiple states, including NREM sleep, REM sleep, quiet wakefulness, and anesthesia, and was directly related to the delta power, a hallmark of NREM sleep," according to the authors.
The team suggests that understanding these mechanisms may improve knowledge about how internal brain processes interact with physical functions such as breathing. This could have implications for conditions like Parkinson's disease where both respiration and sleep are often affected.
"These findings provide new insights into how internal brain states interact with peripheral rhythms like respiration, with important functional implications for both sleep and anesthesia," said the scientists.
"Furthermore," they continued, "elucidating the mechanisms underlying respiration-neural coupling, especially within basal ganglia circuits, will shed light on the pathophysiology of conditions such as Parkinson's disease, where both sleep and respiration are commonly disrupted."
