title: Sharing breathlessness: investigating respiratory change during observation of breath-holding in another.
abstract: Studies of empathy show that seeing another person in pain, fear or disgust elicits the same brain activations associated with pain, fear or disgust in oneself. Our interest is to know whether respiratory change can be observed in empathy, that is, whether respiration can be altered when observing emotions in others. A discomfort associated with respiration can be breathlessness. We investigated respiratory pattern and metabolic response during observation of a breath-holding subject. We found that breathlessness occurred in participants who observed breath-holding in another person. It is interesting to note that observers felt more breathlessness after breath-holding ended with an increase in respiratory rate consistent with the breath-holder's respiratory pattern. In addition, observers with high trait anxiety felt more breathlessness accompanied with an increase in respiratory rate. An increase in respiratory rate may be involved in the perception of breathlessness, in addition to the effect of observing breath-holding, indicating shared negative emotion.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physiology II, Showa University School of Medicine, 1-5-8 Hatanodai, Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo 142-8555, Japan.
authors.forename: Takeshi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kuroda
authors.forename: Yuri
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Masaoka
authors.forename: Hideyo
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kasai
authors.forename: Kengo
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Noguchi
authors.forename: Mitsuru
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kawamura
authors.forename: Ikuo
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Homma
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001007:Anxiety / Q000523:psychology; D002245:Carbon Dioxide / Q000097:blood; D003627:Data Interpretation, Statistical; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology; D004645:Empathy / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D007100:Imitative Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D012129:Respiratory Function Tests; D015656:Respiratory Mechanics / Q000502:physiology*; D012931:Social Environment; D014159:Transducers; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D002245:Carbon Dioxide