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 Baseline 39 44 48 50 34 54 34 38 44 39 Threat 59 47 51 61 48 69 43 52 945 48 65 Fast paced Baseline 37 40 39 47 45 43 32 27 44 41 Threat 49 42 48 57 49 44 45 54 44 61 Nonpaced Baseline 36 34 50 49 38 39 66 39 45 42 Threat 51 71 37 53 52 56 67 49 65 57 Source: Data provided courtesy of Dr. Masahito Sakakibara.