PERFORMANCE AND LEARNING DURING VOLUNTARY CONTROL OF BREATH PATTERNS

Fourteen subjects learned to adjust their breath pattern to two target breaths displayed on a video screen, by using visual feedback, during two sessions 24 h apart. These two targets were respectively the smal lest and the largest breaths of a ten-breath sample previously recorde d from each subject's resting spontaneous breathing. Performances were significantly better for the large than for the small target breath. This cannot be directly inferred from current knowledge related to the control of movement time and amplitude, but rather it may be inferred from the periodic character of breathing, to the higher mental load d uring the small breath task, or to the presumably different frequencie s of target breaths in the whole span of spontaneous breathing. In the second session, performance on the two targets levelled out as a resu lt of learning.