Salutaris

By

Adrian

·

How peripheral vision shapes breathing: a short review

Vision and breathing are both tightly integrated with the autonomic nervous system (ANS). The ANS controls “fight/flight” (sympathetic) and “rest/digest” (parasympathetic) modes; breathing pattern is a very responsive output of that system, and visual attention/gaze direction is a strong input. In this article, we dig a little deeper to explain the how.

This phenomenon was demonstrated to me many years ago, whilst participating in a training course riding motorcycles around a circuit. The instructions were to soften our gaze and expand our field of view. This simple exercise seemed like magic, the way the speed on the track appeared to slow down, giving the brain more time to take in additional information and make decisions that allowed faster and much safer choices to navigate the track, other riders and all the surroundings. It is only now that I have looked into the biological reasons this occurs and how this can be incorporated into our lives beyond the track.

When attention narrows to a small foveal target (a “tunnel” or focused gaze) the brain’s alerting systems tend to dominate; when attention broadens to include the visual periphery (a “soft” or panoramic gaze), the nervous system shifts toward a calmer parasympathetic balance. This means gaze strategy can systematically bias respiration toward faster, shallower chest breathing (narrow gaze / alert) or slower, deeper diaphragmatic breathing (expanded peripheral gaze / calm). (1)

Two lines of modern research make this link plausible. First, cognitive-neuroscience studies show respiration itself couples to sensory and attentional processing: breathing rhythm modulates visual attention and perceptual sampling (for example, certain visual tasks are performed better at particular phases of the breathing cycle). In other words, breathing and visual processing are not independent — they rhythmically interact in the brain. (2)

Second, recent physiological work demonstrates a concrete pathway by which breathing alters visual function: a large multi-experiment study found pupil size systematically varies over the breathing cycle — smallest around inhalation onset and largest during exhalation — which changes the amount of light entering the eye and therefore affects visual sensitivity and acuity. That study strengthens the concept of a two-way relationship: breathing changes visual parameters, and visual strategy (which changes arousal) feeds back to breathing. (3)

Clinical and psychophysiological research supports the intermediary role of autonomic tone. Heart-rate variability (HRV), a robust index of parasympathetic (vagal) activity, reliably tracks changes in relaxation and arousal produced by visual and attentional manipulations as well as breathing techniques. Interventions that broaden visual attention (scenic vistas, panoramic imagery, “soft-gaze” practices) or that deliberately slow respiration tend to increase vagal indices and produce calmer breathing patterns — evidence that vision-to-autonomic pathways can alter respiratory behaviour. (4)

Put simply: peripheral / panoramic vision tends to promote parasympathetic activity and deeper, slower breathing, while narrow, foveal focus tends to elevate sympathetic activity and produce shallower, faster breaths. The recent Journal of Physiology work that ties breathing to pupil dynamics gives mechanistic plausibility to why those visual states change how we sample the world — and why breathing and vision are tightly linked. (3)

A simple exercise to feel the link (3–5 minutes)

This short, no-equipment exercise demonstrates how shifting from a narrow to a peripheral gaze changes breathing.

  1. Sit comfortably with feet on the floor and hands resting. Keep a neutral head position.
  2. Baseline (1 minute): Look at a small object ~1–2 m away (a pen, a dot on the wall). Breathe naturally for 60 seconds. Notice breath rate, depth, and whether breathing feels high (chest) or low (belly). Optionally count breaths per minute.
  3. Switch to peripheral/panoramic gaze (2 minutes): Soften your eyes — don’t focus on a single point. Let your awareness expand to include the whole room: walls, ceiling, floor, and objects at the edges of your visual field. You can lightly un-focus or keep the eyes open and relaxed. Hold this panoramic awareness and breathe normally for two minutes.
  4. Compare: Notice changes — does your breath slow? Does it deepen into the belly? Do you feel relaxation in the shoulders/face? If you have a pulse oximeter or heart-rate app, you may notice slower pulse or increased HRV (if the app reports it) during the panoramic phase.

Practical tips: keep sessions short at first; the effect is immediate for many people. Combine panoramic gaze with a slightly longer exhale (for example, inhale 3 counts, exhale 5 counts) to amplify parasympathetic activation.

Bottom line and research caveat

There is converging evidence (behavioural neuroscience, psychophysiology, and recent physiology work on breathing–pupil coupling) that visual strategy (narrow vs. peripheral gaze) influences autonomic tone and therefore breathing. The field is active: the recent multi-experiment Journal of Physiology paper (Schaefer et al., 2024/2025) showing breathing-phase pupillary changes is particularly strong empirical support for the sensory–respiratory coupling discussed above. At present, direct randomized clinical trials specifically manipulating peripheral-vision training and measuring respiratory outcomes (breaths per minute, tidal volume, HRV) are still limited; the best evidence combines mechanistic lab studies and psychophysiology reviews cited below. (2,3)

Key sources (selected)

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