Respiratory phase and visual signal detection

Previous studies have implicated respiration as a source of intra-S variation in visual signal detection tasks. In the present study, pneumographic respiration records were obtained on 22 female undergraduates during a visual signal detection task. The analysis of signal detection with respect to respiration phase showed that signals presented during exhalation were detected more frequently than those presented during inhalation. These findings suggest that the intra-S variation in signal detection performance may be partially accounted for by respiratory behavior at the moment of signal presentation.