Keep the breath in mind: Respiratory interoception in the developing brain

呼吸使个体处于当前的感官体验中，这是最小自我的本质。尽管呼吸是一项重要的运动任务，平均每天要执行20000次，但令人惊讶的是，人们对呼吸如何与神经、感觉运动和身体过程相互作用来塑造自我感觉知之甚少。在对成年人的研究中，越来越多的证据表明，神经振荡影响呼吸，呼吸调节认知和情感功能。然而，我们完全不知道这些相互作用是如何在发育中的大脑中发挥作用的。在这个项目中，我们将研究呼吸内感觉如何与神经和身体过程相互作用，以及呼吸的主动调节如何在发育中的大脑中引起短期和长期的变化。通过结合前沿神经科学方法和机器人学模拟的跨学科发展方法，我们将提供自我意识如何在生命早期继续发展的机械解释。在第一个工作包中，我们将调查儿童对瞬时呼吸信号的敏感性。在两个实验中，我们将测量休息时以及在内感注意任务中神经和呼吸动力学之间的相互作用。这一工作包将为其他两个工作包奠定基础。在第二个工作包中，我们将重点介绍呼吸主动调节的行为、神经和计算机制。通过生物反馈游戏，我们将测试孩子们是否以及如何学习慢节奏呼吸。利用计算模型，我们将根据短期和长期预测误差(PE)最小化来形式化呼吸主动调制背后的动力学机制。在第三个工作包中，我们将进一步研究呼吸主动调节的经验在神经和内感过程中的作用。通过训练程序，我们将测试重复的感觉运动学习(即慢节奏的呼吸)对神经呼吸动力学和内感注意的长期影响。考虑到内感发展的研究匮乏，我们希望我们的跨学科项目能够对呼吸内感觉在发育中的大脑的作用产生开创性的见解。我们确信，我们在第一阶段开始的工作，我们的目标是在第二阶段进一步发展，将对优先计划填补文献中的一个重要知识空白具有至关重要的价值。

Breathing grounds the individual in the current sensory experience, which is the essence of a minimal self. Despite being a vital motor task that is performed on average 20000 times a day, it is surprising that little is known about how breathing interacts with neural, sensorimotor and bodily processes to shape the sense of self. A growing body of evidence in research with adults showed that neural oscillations entrain to respiration, and respiration modulates cognitive and affective functions. However, it is entirely unknown how these interactions work in the developing brain. In this project, we will investigate how respiratory interoception interacts with neural and bodily processes and how active modulation of the breath elicits short-term and long-term changes in the developing brain. With an interdisciplinary developmental approach combining cutting-edge neuroscientific methods with robotics simulations, we will provide a mechanistic explanation on how sense of self, operationalized through respiratory interoceptive sensitivity, continues to develop in early years of life.In the first work package, we will investigate children’s sensitivity to their instantaneous respiratory signals. In two experiments, we will measure the interplay between neural and respiratory dynamics at rest as well as in interoceptive attention tasks. This work package will lay the foundation for the other two work packages. In the second work package, we will focus on the behavioral, neural and computational mechanisms of active modulation of the breath. With a biofeedback game, we will test whether and how children learn to perform slow paced breathing. Using computational modeling, we will formalize the dynamic mechanism underlying active modulation of the breath in terms of short-term and long-term prediction error (PE) minimization. In the third work package, we will further investigate the role of experience with active modulation of the breath on neural and interoceptive processes. Using a training procedure, we will test the prolonged effects of repeated sensorimotor learning (i.e. slow-paced breathing) on neurorespiratory dynamics as well as on interoceptive attention.Considering the scarcity of research on the development of interoception, we expect our interdisciplinary project to generate groundbreaking insights into the role of respiratory interoception in the developing brain. We are certain that the work we started in the first period, which we aim to further develop in the second phase, will be of crucial value to the Priority Program filling an important knowledge gap in the literature.