Slow-paced breathing and cardiac vagal activity : influence on stress regulation, sleep, and cognitive executive performance Sylvain Laborde To cite this version: Sylvain Laborde. Slow-paced breathing and cardiac vagal activity : influence on stress regulation, sleep, and cognitive executive performance. Psychology. Normandie Université, 2019. English. NNT : 2019NORMC044. tel-02517664v2 HAL Id: tel-02517664 https://tel.archives-ouvertes.fr/tel-02517664v2 Submitted on 25 Mar 2020 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. THÈSE Pour obtenir le diplôme de doctorat Spécialité PSYCHOLOGIE Préparée au sein de l'Université de Caen Normandie Slοw-paced breathing and cardiac vagal activity: Ιnfluence οn stress regulatiοn, sleep, and cοgnitive executive perfοrmance Présentée et soutenue par Sylvain LABORDE Thèse soutenue publiquement le 07/12/2019 devant le jury composé de M. ULRICH ETTINGER Professeur, Université de Bonn - Allemagne Rapporteur du jury Mme ILSE VAN DIEST Professeur, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven- Belgique Rapporteur du jury M. DAMIEN DAVENNE Professeur des universités, Université Caen Normandie Président du jury Thèse dirigée par FABRICE DOSSEVILLE, Mobilités : vieillissement, pathologie, santé - COMETE “Yes, they are elves," Legolas said. "and they say that you breathe so loud they could shoot you in the dark." Sam hastily covered his mouth. J.R.R. Tolkien – Lord of the Rings Indexes Summary 1 INDEXES ......................................................................................................................................... 5 1.1 FIGURES INDEX .............................................................................................................................. 5 1.2 TABLES INDEX ................................................................................................................................ 6 1.3 ABBREVIATIONS INDEX ..................................................................................................................... 7 1.4 PUBLICATIONS INCLUDED IN THE PHD THESIS ......................................................................................... 8 1.5 SCIENTIFIC COMMUNICATIONS RELATED TO THIS PHD THESIS ..................................................................... 8 1.5.1 Symposia .......................................................................................................................... 8 1.5.2 Oral talks .......................................................................................................................... 8 1.5.3 Posters ............................................................................................................................. 9 1.5.4 Applied workshops............................................................................................................ 9 1.6 AWARDS RELATED TO THIS PHD THESIS ...............................................................................................10 2 PREFACE .......................................................................................................................................11 3 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................13 4 THEORETICAL BACKGROUND ........................................................................................................15 4.1 BREATHING ..................................................................................................................................15 4.1.1 Main role: Gas exchange between the body and the environment ....................................15 4.1.2 Respiratory passageways: The crucial role of the nose......................................................15 4.1.3 Mechanics of pulmonary ventilation ................................................................................16 4.1.4 Pulmonary volumes .........................................................................................................18 4.1.5 Alveolar ventilation..........................................................................................................19 4.1.6 Transport of oxygen and carbon dioxide in blood and tissue fluids ....................................21 4.1.7 The central regulation of respiration ................................................................................22 4.2 AT THE CROSSROADS BETWEEN THE RESPIRATORY AND THE CARDIOVASCULAR SYSTEMS ...................................24 4.2.1 Coupling between heart beat and respiration: Respiratory sinus arrhythmia.....................24 4.2.2 Slow-paced breathing ......................................................................................................26 4.3 HOW SLOW-PACED BREATHING MAY INFLUENCE SELF-REGULATION: THE ROLE OF THE VAGUS NERVE...................30 4.3.1 The role of the vagus nerve in self-regulation ...................................................................30 4.3.2 Cardiac vagal activity: the output of the central autonomic network ................................33 4.3.3 The neurovisceral integration model ................................................................................34 4.3.4 Non-invasive assessment of cardiac vagal activity with heart rate variability ....................35 4.4 THE 3RS OF VAGUS NERVE FUNCTIONING ............................................................................................36 4.5 SELF-REGULATION PHENOMENA INVESTIGATED WITH SLOW-PACED BREATHING AND CARDIAC VAGAL ACTIVITY WITHIN THIS PHD THESIS .............................................................................................................................................37 4.5.1 Stress ..............................................................................................................................37 4.5.1.1 Psychological stress .................................................................................................................. 37 4.5.1.2 Physical stress .......................................................................................................................... 38 4.5.1.3 Stress and slow-paced breathing ............................................................................................... 38 4.5.1.4 Stress and intellectUal disability ................................................................................................ 39 4.6 SLEEP .........................................................................................................................................39 4.6.1 Sleep and cardiac vagal activity .......................................................................................40 4.6.2 Sleep and slow-paced breathing.......................................................................................41 4.7 EXECUTIVE FUNCTIONING ................................................................................................................42 4.7.1 Inhibition and cardiac vagal activity .................................................................................42 4.7.2 Working memory and cardiac vagal activity .....................................................................43 4.7.3 Cognitive flexibility and cardiac vagal activity ..................................................................44 4.7.4 Executive functioning and slow-paced breathing ..............................................................45 5 RESEARCH QUESTIONS & HYPOTHESES.........................................................................................47 6 GENERAL METHOD .......................................................................................................................49 6.1 CARDIAC VAGAL ACTIVITY MEASUREMENT ............................................................................................49 6.2 SLOW-PACED BREATHING EXERCISE ....................................................................................................50 7 STUDY 1 (PUBLISHED) - THE EFFECT OF SLOW-PACED BREATHING ON STRESS MANAGEMENT IN ADOLESCENTS WITH INTELLECTUAL DISABILITY ..............................................................................................54 2 Indexes 8 STUDY 2 (PUBLISHED) - INFLUENCE OF A 30-DAY SLOW PACED BREATHING INTERVENTION COMPARED TO SOCIAL MEDIA USE ON SUBJECTIVE SLEEP QUALITY AND CARDIAC VAGAL ACTIVITY .............62 9 STUDY 3 (SUBMITTED) – THE INFLUENCE OF SLOW-PACED BREATHING ON EXECUTIVE FUNCTION 74 9.1 INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................................................74 9.2 METHOD .....................................................................................................................................75 9.2.1 Participants .....................................................................................................................75 9.2.2 Material and Measures ....................................................................................................75 9.2.2.1 Cardiac vagal activity ...............................................................................................................