EMOTION BREATHING AND SPEECH

The literature on the variations of respiration in different emotional states is extensive. Yet few studies have examined respiration during actual speaking because methods of measurement interfere with the production of speech or preclude it altogether. Observations on nonspeaking respiration in different emotional states include work by Finesinger [1], Deutsch [2] and others. Stevenson [3] found increases in the frequency and amplitude and a more irregular pattern in states of anxiety and, at times, anger. Clausen [4], working with a pneumograph, discriminated between groups of normal subjects and neurotics, finding in the latter a higher breathing rate. Christiansen [5] has recently reported similar findings in certain types of 'excited' psychiatric patients as compared with controls. © 1968.