Effect of Paced Respiratory Exercise on Retention of Motor Skills

The ability to learn and perform skilled movements is a hallmark of human behavior. Activities in the certain brain areas that are involved in acquisition and retention of motor skills can be modulated by simple exercises involving changes in breathing pattern and duration, implying that such breathing exercises may influence the learning and retention of skilled movements. We have tested this idea in this study. Normal individuals were first trained for a new motor skill and were assessed for its retention 30 minutes and 24 hours post learning. The randomly divided experimental groups performed alternate nostril breathing exercise for 30 minutes either after the learning session or after the first retention test; while the control group rested for the same duration. Results indicate a significant difference for retention of the learned information in the groups that performed breathing as compared to the group that did not perform breathing. The findings suggest that simple paced respiratory exercises can be exploited to enhance retention of skilled movements.