Why You're More Likely To Act During An Exhale & Why It Matters

The concept of free will has been studied and discussed for generations. At some point, you've probably asked yourself, "Is my life really my choice? Or am I at the whim of my subconscious?"

A team of scientists at the Swiss Federal Institute for Technology Lausanne asked the same question, wondering how much bodily signals determine our mindset and actions. To figure that out, they looked at something called "readiness potential" and how it is affected by our breath.

All of this research was based around "readiness potential," or the instant of brain activity before a person even becomes aware they're going to perform an action.

It's observable in brain scans just before we exercise our will, which some say proves free will doesn't exist because the brain seems to commit to the decision before we do so consciously.

To conduct their study, the team had 52 participants simply press a button at their own will while hooked up to brain, breath, and cardiac scanners.

Interestingly, both pressing the button and the readiness potential to perform the action were affected by breath (but not heartbeat). The findings suggested that our regular breathing cycle is actually intrinsic to readiness potential and, subsequently, decision making. They also observed people are more likely to act on an exhale than an inhale.

"Voluntary action is indeed linked to your body's inner state, especially with breathing and [exhalation] but not with some other bodily signals, such as the heartbeat," says senior author of the study Olaf Blanke, which may be "just one example of how acts of free will are hostage to a host of inner body states."

Could it be that the decision-making process is just as much up to the body as to the mind? It's starting to look like it, which could have real implications for people who struggle with voluntary actions (Parkinson's) and impulse control (OCD). It also offers valuable insight into what it means to be human.