Prolonged Exhale May Boost Risk-Taking, Brain Scans Suggest

A small Neuron study found that a slow, prolonged exhale can nudge people toward riskier gambles by heightening reward sensitivity, with brain activity shifting in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex and precuneus. The effect appeared only in a lab-based, 41-participant task and did not increase sensitivity to losses, and researchers caution that the sample is small and results need replication before drawing broad conclusions about real-world decision making.