The purpose of a study by Sakakibara and Hayano (A-43) was to examine the effect of voluntarily slowed respiration on the cardiac parasympathetic response to a threat (the anticipation of an electric shock). Subjects were 30 healthy college students whose mean age was 23 years with a standard deviation of 1.5 years. An equal number of subjects were randomly assigned to slow (six males, four females), fast (seven males, three females), and nonpaced (five males, five females)

breathing groups. Subjects in the slow- and fast-paced breathing groups regulated their breathing rate to 8 and 30 cpm, respectively. The nonpaced group breathed spontaneously. The following are the subjects’ scores on the State Anxiety Score of State-Trait Anxiety Inventory after baseline and period of threat:

Slow paced Fast paced Nonpaced Baseline Threat Baseline Threat Baseline Threat 39 59 37 49 36 51 44 47 40 42 34 71 48 51 39 48 50 37 50 61 47 57 49 53 34 48 45 49 38 52 54 69 43 44 39 56 34 43 32 45 66 67 38 52 27 54 39 49 44 48 44 44 45 65 39 65 41 61 42 57 Source: Data provided courtesy of Dr. Masahito Sakakibara.