Interplay between cognitive conditions and individual traits in voluntary apnea

Breath-holding is employed to enhance performance in sports such as diving, due to its specific physiological correlates. Its duration can be enhanced through training and specific cognitive strategies, and can be influenced by individual traits. Since hypnotizability has been linked to interoceptive sensibility and imagery abilities—both influencing breath-holding—we aimed to assess its contribution to breath-holding duration. The study investigates breath-hold duration during imagery of normal breathing (motor imagery, a cognitively incongruent condition) and while focusing attention on apnea sensations (internally focused attention, a cognitively congruent condition) in participants with different hypnotizability scores. Hypnotizability was assessed in healthy participants—as low-to-medium (med-lows, N = 16) and medium-to-high hypnotizables (med-highs, N = 17)—according to the Stanford Hypnotic Susceptibility Scale: Form A. They completed the Multidimensional Assessment of Interoceptive Awareness and the Movement Imagery Questionnaire-3 and performed three breath-holding trials of each condition in counterbalanced order. Heart rate and skin conductance were monitored. The vividness and ease of motor imagery and internally focused attention tasks were reported. Breath-holding duration increased across trials independently from cognitive condition and hypnotizability. Heart rate increased during motor imagery more than during internally focused attention, skin conductance decreased quasi-significantly during both tasks in both groups. Imagery abilities and interoceptive sensibility masked hypnotizability-related differences in the tasks’ subjective experience, heart rate, and increase in breath-holding duration across trials. Thus, hypnotizability, imagery abilities, and interoceptive sensibility jointly contribute to increase breath-holding duration across trials and to the associated experience and autonomic responses.