Correlation between eeg power and end-tidal co2 in voluntary breath-hold and free breathing tasks

The central mechanism of breathing control is not completely known, as well as the relationship between carbon dioxide (CO2) changes and brain activity. An approach to elicit CO2 variations is voluntary breath-hold. During long breath-hold period (80-225 s) changes of alpha frequency peak and an increase of delta power with respect to normal breathing were observed [1]. Here, we investigate the differences in brain activity between free breathing and 30 s breath-hold tasks in healthy subjects by evaluating the correlation between global field power (GFP) in the ? and ? bands and end-tidal carbon dioxide (etCO2) concentration.