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EEG microstates and its cortical sources during single nostril breathing

Poster Session B - Sunday, March 8, 2026, 8:00 – 10:00 am PDT, Fairview/Kitsilano Ballroom

Kumar Abhishek¹ (), Sweta Sweta¹, Prashant Tayade¹, Suriya Prakash Muthukrishnan¹, Simran Kaur¹, Ratna Sharma¹; ¹All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India

Pranayama, a foundational yogic breathing practice, exerts modulatory effects on autonomic, affective, and cognitive processes through voluntary respiratory control. Among its variants, Single Nostril Breathing (SNB) [including left (LNB) and right nostril breathing (RNB)] is proposed to induce hemispheric asymmetries and shifts in sympathovagal tone. Yet, the fine-grained neural dynamics underlying SNB remain poorly characterized. This study investigates how SNB reorganizes large-scale brain network dynamics using high-density qEEG microstate analysis and cortical source imaging, compared to spontaneous breathing (SB). Twenty-two healthy right-handed male adults (aged 20-35 years) underwent EEG recording during SB and guided SNB paced at six breaths per minute. Preprocessing was performed in EEGLAB, followed by microstate segmentation using Cartool and source reconstruction via sLORETA. Six EEG microstates were consistently identified across conditions. Relative to SB, SNB elicited significant reductions in the mean duration and temporal coverage of Maps 1 and 3, accompanied by increased global explained variance (GEV) in Map 6. Source localization revealed augmented current density in the anterior cingulate cortex, medial and inferior frontal gyri, and superior temporal gyrus- regions implicated in attentional control, interoceptive monitoring, and emotional regulation. No lateralized differences emerged between LNB and RNB. SNB induces dynamic reconfiguration of intrinsic brain networks, characterized by accelerated microstate transitions and enhanced engagement of fronto-cingulate and temporo-parietal circuits. These findings suggest that controlled yogic breathing fosters neural efficiency and integrative processing through modulation of transient large-scale network states, offering neurophysiological support for its role in cognitive flexibility and affective balance.

Topic Area: METHODS: Electrophysiology