Respiratory Phase and Visuospatial Attention: A Replication and Extension

Recent studies suggest that respiration may influence visuospatial processing. In two experiments, Belli and Fischer (2024) reported faster detection of targets on the right at inhalation peaks and targets on the left at exhalation troughs. We sought to replicate those findings and to test whether the influence of breathing phase on spatial responding would also extend to the vertical dimension. Experiment 1 used a visual probe detection task and Experiment 2 used an exogenous Posner cueing task. Targets appeared at horizontal and vertical locations, with trials manually triggered at visually identified inhalation peaks and exhalation troughs. Across both experiments, the predicted spatial pattern did not emerge on either axis. Experiment 1 yielded no reliable phase effect, whereas Experiment 2 showed shorter reaction times in the inhalation condition than in the exhalation condition across target locations, consistent with a general change in response speed associated with inhalation.