Hyperventilation Effects on Bodily Self-Consciousness

Summary

This study examines how voluntary fast, deep breathing (hyperventilation) affects the way healthy adults perceive their own body. Participants wear a virtual-reality (VR) headset and see a virtual body; a glowing halo around it either pulses exactly in time with their own breathing or is time-shifted. During the study, breathing, heart activity, blood-oxygen level, the carbon-dioxide content of exhaled air, and brain activity (EEG, measured non-invasively from the scalp) are recorded continuously, and participants complete questionnaires about their experience.

The aim is to understand whether and how altered breathing changes the interplay between what people see and what they feel inside their body, and thereby the sense of being located within one's own body. The study uses a 2×2 within-subjects design crossing Breathing (normal vs. hyperventilation) with Visual synchrony (synchronous vs. asynchronous), with the asynchronous and normal-breathing conditions serving as within-subject controls.

No medication is administered and no medical device is being tested; the instruments used serve only for monitoring and measurement. Participation involves a screening visit (including a short, \~5-minute guided-hyperventilation tolerance test) and an experimental visit.

Conditions

• Bodily Self-Consciousness
• Interoception
• Healthy Volunteers

Interventions

OTHER

Voluntary hyperventilation (guided paced breathing)

Participants breathe deeper and faster than normal, maintaining continuous cyclic breathing without pauses between inhalation and exhalation, paced by a pre-recorded standardised voice guide in German or English with background music. The hyperventilation block comprises four cycles, each with a 10-minute guided paced-hyperventilation induction, a 2-minute VR exposure and a 3-minute post-exposure stack (BSC-Q, Mental Imagery Task, distress NRS); cycle 1 additionally includes a 2-minute hyperventilation-state Mental Imagery Task pre-test between the induction and the VR exposure. A 5-minute sustained-hyperventilation resting-state EEG window is collected between cycles 2 and 3, with the voice guide replaced by a soft drum pacing tone. Cumulative hyperventilation is approximately 45 minutes, followed by a single supervised recovery. EtCO2, SpO2, heart rate and heart rate variability (ECG) are monitored continuously under the protocol's tiered stop criteria.

OTHER

Normal spontaneous breathing (within-subject control)

Within-subject control condition for the Breathing factor. Participants breathe at their natural spontaneous rate while receiving audio guidance from the same pre-recorded standardised voice guide and background music used in the hyperventilation condition, so that the auditory environment is held constant across conditions and only the breathing instruction differs. Delivered as two 8-minute normal-breathing cycles (3 minutes spontaneous breathing in VR, a 2-minute VR exposure, and a 3-minute post-exposure stack of BSC-Q, Mental Imagery Task and distress NRS), one with synchronous and one with asynchronous respiratory-visual feedback, seated in the experimental chair wearing the head-mounted display.

OTHER

Synchronous respiratory-visual VR feedback

Respiratory-visual VR paradigm delivering contingent feedback; this is the measurement method through which bodily self-consciousness is assessed. Seated participants wear a head-mounted display showing a first-person view of a three-dimensional virtual body positioned about 2 metres in front of the viewpoint and seen from behind. A respiratory belt at the level of the umbilicus drives, in real time, a luminous halo surrounding the virtual body: the halo becomes increasingly visible during inspiration, reaches maximum luminosity at peak inspiration and fades during expiration, in synchrony with the participant's actual breathing. Each exposure lasts 2 minutes (120 seconds). Each participant receives one synchronous exposure in the normal-breathing block and two in the hyperventilation block.

OTHER

Asynchronous respiratory-visual VR feedback

Respiratory-visual VR paradigm delivering non-contingent feedback; the control level of the Synchrony factor. Setup is identical to the synchronous condition (seated, head-mounted display, virtual body about 2 metres in front seen from behind, respiratory belt at the umbilicus), except that the halo modulation is phase-shifted and frequency-adjusted to 80% or 120% of the measured breathing frequency, so that the visual feedback never corresponds to the participant's respiratory state. Each exposure lasts 2 minutes (120 seconds). Each participant receives one asynchronous exposure in the normal-breathing block and two in the hyperventilation block.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• University of Fribourg

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Gregor Hasler, Prof. Dr. med. · University of Fribourg

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

BASIC_SCIENCE

Masking

NONE

Model

CROSSOVER

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Max Age

55 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2026-09-01

Primary Completion

2027-07-31

Completion

2027-07-31

Countries

• Switzerland

Study Locations