This webinar examines key respiratory biometrics in breathing behavioral biofeedback instrumentation. Past research demonstrates that breathing behavioral changes act as buffering mechanisms to maintain or restore acid-base physiological homeostasis, operationalized as pH balance. As a “performance-oriented” course, the theoretical foundation of breathing behavior is as an adaptive neurophysiological (medullary-mediated) response to external insults and impacts and internal perceptual, emotional, and metabolic demands. This course asks how chronic, conditioned breathing behavior triggers,
exacerbates, perpetuates, and causes acid-base physiological instability, known as respiratory alkalosis, operationally defined in performance capnography as hypocapnia. Unlike static clinical environments, this course introduces dynamic physical activity as an attenuator of acid-base instability, operationalized through capnometric metabolic analysis, and introduces breathing education as a toolset for physically and cognitively restructuring breathing behavior. Conditioned, maladaptive compromises to compensatory breathing behavior will be discussed, though organic and structural deficiencies that interact or cause breathing
behavioral changes will not be addressed, as the latter enter the domain of pulmonological pathology and respiratory therapy. Respiratory psychophysiology complements other biofeedback instrumentation and methodologies (e.g., HRV, EEG, and EMG biofeedback) by offering tangible, physical breathing interventions that contribute to successful self-regulation experiences. Though the intent of this course is to introduce breathing behavioral biofeedback, integration with other instrumentation exceeds the scope of this introduction. The presenter holds no commercial involvement in breathing behavioral instrumentation or education and has no conflicts of interest.

What will I learn?

1. Distinguish acid-base physiological ranges that define pH balance from acidosis to alkalosis and are operationally defined by end-tidal carbon dioxide (ETCO2).
2. Understand how breathing behavior acts a medullary-mediated buffering mechanism to maintain pH balance through breathing behavioral changes.
3. Identify the key characteristics of breathing behavioral change: ratio, transport, locus, rate, volume, rhythm, and cardiorespiratory synchronization.
4. Examine how external insults and impacts and internal perceptual, emotional, and metabolic demands are adaptively compensated for by breathing behavioral changes.
5. Define maladaptive compromises that can condition baseline breathing behavioral patterns that trigger, perpetuate, exacerbate, or cause autonomic reactivity and associated symptomology.
6. Explore dynamic physical activity as an attenuator of respiratory alkalosis, as an end-endurance threshold limit value, and an array of breathing interventions that stabilize maladaptive breathing behavioral patterns and individualized stress response
stereotypy.