Study links the shape of each breath to brain activity patterns

A UC San Diego study of 16 epilepsy patients found that the shape of each inhale and exhale matches patterns of electrical activity in brain regions tied to cognition, emotion and memory. The work offers a framework for studying SUDEP and SIDS.

• The study involved 16 people with treatment-resistant epilepsy
• Each breath was modeled as a wave and compared with invasive brain recordings
• Breathing-brain coupling is richer than previously thought
• Future work will test whether this coupling breaks down in SUDEP and SIDS