Physiological changes in response to apnea impact the timing of motor representations: a preliminary study

Franck Di Rienzo , Nady Hoyek (1) , Christian Collet (1) , Aymeric Guillot (2)

1 LIBM - Laboratoire Interuniversitaire de Biologie de la Motricité
2 IUF - Institut universitaire de France

Background: Reduced physiological arousal in response to breath-holding affects internal clock processes, leading swimmers to underestimate the time spent under apnea. We investigated whether reduced physiological arousal during static apnea was likely to affect the temporal organization of motor imagery (MI). Methods: Fourteen interregional to national breath-holding athletes mentally and physically performed two 15 m swimming tasks of identical durations. They performed the two sequences in a counterbalanced order, the first while breathing normally using a scuba, the second under apnea. We assessed MI duration immediately after completion of the corresponding task. Athletes performed MI with and without holding breath.

Domaines: Neurosciences; Education

Franck Di Rienzo, Nady Hoyek, Christian Collet, Aymeric Guillot. Physiological changes in response to apnea impact the timing of motor representations: a preliminary study. Behavioral and Brain Functions, 2014. ⟨hal-01743947⟩