White, David EGhani, UsmanPedersen, MangorThoma, ChristianEssex, ChristiShepherd, DanielBurns, GeorginaWaterstone, Toby SRoos, KLTTaylor, DeniseNiazi, Imran K2026-01-302026-01-302025-12-15Journal of NeuroEngineering and Rehabilitation, ISSN: 1743-0003 (Print); 1743-0003 (Online), BMC, 23(1), 18-. doi: 10.1186/s12984-025-01782-x1743-00031743-0003http://hdl.handle.net/10292/20565BACKGROUND: Unilateral nostril breathing (UNB) has a history linked to ancient yogic traditions where it is believed to affect both physical and mental states however the mechanism(s) by which this technique potentially influences brain electrical activity remains poorly explored. METHODS: In this pilot study we investigated the influence of pressurised device-regulated UNB on brain functional network activity in healthy awake individuals to test its suitability for later use in hypothesis-driven clinical trials. Baseline bilateral EEG data were acquired, and then dominant/nondominant nostril UNB protocols were used to assess changes in brain network functional connectivity signal coherence, and phase lag index. RESULTS: Changes in functional connectivity were detected only when comparing right to left UNB, with the following networks demonstrating changes: the Default Mode Network which included reduced alpha and increased beta wave activity; the Salience Network, which included increased gamma wave activity; the Auditory Network, which included increased gamma and delta wave activity; and the Left Brain Region, which included reduced delta wave activity. CONCLUSIONS: This study revealed that device-regulated pressurised left/right UNB changed brain FC in awake healthy individuals in several brain networks. Nasal cycle dominance was found to play no role in UNB influencing brain FC; rather, nasal morphology (left/right side) seems to be the controlling factor. Further investigations are needed to verify our results and apply them to clinical populations.Open Access. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License, which permits any non-commercial use, sharing, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if you modified the licensed material. You do not have permission under this licence to share adapted material derived from this article or parts of it. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.Unilateral nostril breathingElectroencephalographyFunctional connectivityFunctional networkUnilateral nostril breathing3208 Medical Physiology32 Biomedical and Clinical SciencesClinical ResearchBrain DisordersNeurological0903 Biomedical Engineering1109 NeurosciencesRehabilitation3209 Neurosciences4003 Biomedical engineeringHumansPilot ProjectsMaleFemaleAdultBrainElectroencephalographyYoung AdultRespirationNerve NetNoseBrain WavesNoseBrainNerve NetHumansElectroencephalographyPilot ProjectsRespirationAdultFemaleMaleYoung AdultBrain WavesJournal ArticleOpenAccess10.1186/s12984-025-01782-x