Can deep breathing trick the brain into feeling a virtual body?
NCT ID NCT07769710
First seen Aug 18, 2026 · Last updated Aug 19, 2026 · Updated 1 time
Summary
This study explores whether voluntary fast, deep breathing (hyperventilation) alters how healthy adults perceive their own body. Participants wear a virtual-reality headset and see a virtual body, with a glowing halo pulsing either in sync with their breathing or out of sync. The trial measures breathing, heart activity, brain waves, and self-reported feelings to see if hyperventilation changes the sense of being located in one's own body. No medication is involved; it's purely a mechanistic investigation in healthy volunteers.
What this could mean
Our plain-language read of the trial. This is informational only, not medical advice or a prediction.
- Active substance
- Voluntary hyperventilation (guided paced breathing)
- What this could lead to
- If it works, this could deepen understanding of how breathing shapes body awareness, potentially informing therapies for conditions where body perception is altered.
- What could go wrong
- This is a small, early mechanistic study in healthy volunteers, not a treatment trial. Results may not generalize to clinical populations, and hyperventilation carries risks like dizziness or fainting.
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Study facts
What this study's own registry entry says, in plain language.
- Phase
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Not a phased trial
Phase numbers describe drug development. The registry uses this when they do not apply, as it does for trials of devices, procedures or behaviour changes, and for observational studies.
- Participants
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About 35 people
The number the study aims to enrol. It can still change while the study runs.
- Expected to start
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Sep 2026
An estimate. Start dates often move.
- Expected to finish
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Jul 2027
An estimate. End dates often move.
- Lead sponsor
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Other sponsor
The registry's catch-all category, for sponsors it does not file as a company, a government agency, or a research network.
Who can take part
This study's own entry requirements. Only the study team can say for certain whether you qualify.
- Ages
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18 to 55 years
- Sex
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Anyone
- Healthy volunteers
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Accepted
You do not need to have the condition being studied to take part.
Show the full entry requirements Hide the full entry requirements
Copied word for word from the study's registry entry, so the wording is the study team's rather than ours.
Inclusion Criteria: * Healthy adult aged 18-55 years * Able to provide written informed consent * Normal or corrected-to-normal vision * Sufficient German or English to follow instructions and complete questionnaires * Tolerates the \~5-minute VR-guided hyperventilation test at screening Exclusion Criteria: * Cardiovascular or cerebrovascular disease posing a risk during hyperventilation (e.g., myocardial infarction or stroke within 12 months, significant/unstable cardiac disease, heart failure, uncontrolled/severe hypertension, aneurysm, Moyamoya) * Respiratory disease (asthma, COPD, restrictive lung disease, pulmonary fibrosis, recent severe lung infection, dyspnoea at rest) * Haematological disease (sickle cell disease or trait, severe anaemia) * Neurological disease (epilepsy or seizures, severe/recurrent migraine, neurodegenerative disorder) * Psychiatric disorder (panic or severe anxiety disorder, psychosis or schizophrenia, severe bipolar disorder, acute major depression, acute addiction) * Metabolic disease (Type 1 or poorly controlled Type 2 diabetes, BMI \> 35) * Pregnancy (confirmed by urine test at screening) or planned pregnancy during the study period * Medication affecting respiration or brain function * Physical inability to cooperate or to remain seated for the \~188-minute experimental visit * Insufficient understanding of study procedures and risks * Intolerable reaction to the hyperventilation tolerance test at screening
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Conditions
The condition(s) this trial relates to.
As listed by the trial registrant
The condition terms exactly as the trial's registrant entered them.
How to take part
Only the study team decides who joins. These are the ways to reach them.
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The places running it
1 site. The list below names each one and where it is.
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The official record
ClinicalTrials.gov lists the study team's own contact details, including names and phone numbers. We don't republish those.
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A doctor treating you
A doctor who knows your case can contact a study site on your behalf, and can tell you whether this study is worth pursuing at all.
Contacts and locations
Locations
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University of Fribourg, Molecular Psychiatry Laboratory, (at Réseau fribourgeois de santé mentale, RFSM/FNPG)
Villars-sur-Glâne, 1752, Switzerland
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