Breakthrough mind circuit discovery might see new ‘yoga capsule’ created by scientists
Stress-heads could soon pop an anxiety-fighting miracle pill that gives them the same calm as a yoga session. Boffins are set to develop the brain-tricking tablet after making a new discovery about how our grey matter controls breathing.
The eggheads reckon using medicine to hack the little-understood neurological system linking minds with rates of breath could be the key to beating stress and anxiety disorders. Jinho Jhang, one of the authors of a study into our brain circuitry carried out by the Salk Institute in the US, said: “Our findings got me thinking: could we develop drugs to activate these neurons and manually slow our breathing or prevent hyperventilation in panic disorder?”
Sung Han, another author of the research, added: “I want to use these findings to design a yoga pill. It may sound silly, and the translation of our work into a marketable drug will take years.
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(Image: Getty Images)
“But we now have a potentially targetable brain circuit for creating therapeutics that could instantly slow breathing and initiate a peaceful, meditative state.”
Boffs say only subconscious breathing systems in the brainstem are currently thoroughly understood. The eggheads at biological studies specialist the Salk Institute focused on probing conscious mechanisms connecting breathing with emotional regulation.
Its researchers discovered there is a pathway linking voluntary breathing with emotional regulation in mice brains. Their study, published in the Nature Neuroscience journal, says the connection is made between the mind’s most complex regions and the breathing centre of the primitive brainstem.
(Image: Getty Images)
It added even though breathing is mainly automatic, humans and some animals can self-soothe by slowing their breathing – in the same way as yoga followers.
A team of boffs recorded brain activity in mice when their breathing was altered during everyday activities including sniffing, swimming and drinking. They also tested breath rates during conditions inducing fear and anxiety in the rodents.
Their study revealed a set of brain cells and molecules experts now think can be manipulated with drugs. The aim is to use the medicine to alter breathing to induce a state of calm amid anxiety, which they say would be a perfect “cure” for panic attack sufferers.
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