Breathing Movements: The Synkinesis of Respiration with Looking Up and Down

Abstract

Objective: To prove the influence of looking up on inhalation and of looking down on exhalation, i.e., what has been called a “respiratory synkinesis.”

Method: The experimental subject looks at a signal light which appears at various intervals high up and at the bottom of the wall, and breathes against a PVDF folio, a polymeric piezoelectric film, sensitive to changes in temperature. Exhalation, head and eye movements are registered.

Results: Changes in the overall respiratory rhythm according to the frequency of the light signals were highly significant and so was the peak incidence of exhalation at the moment when the signal light appeared at the bottom of the wall.

Conclusion: The existence of respiratory synkinesis could thus be established.

KEYWORDS:

• Respiratory synkinesis
• eye movements
• inhalation
• exhalation
• postisometric relaxation