Respiratory variability preceding and following sighs: A resetter hypothesis

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• 作者：Elke Vlemincx ; Ilse Van Diest ; Paul M. Lehrer ; André ; E. Aubert ; Omer Van den Bergh
• 关键词：Sighing ; Respiratory variability ; LifeShirt^® ;
• 刊名：Biological Psychology
• 出版年：2010
• 出版时间：April 2010
• 年：2010
• 卷：84
• 期：1
• 页码：82-87
• 全文大小：281 K

文摘

Respiratory behavior is characterized by complex variability with structured and random components. Assuming that both a lack of variability and too much randomness represent suboptimal breathing regulation, we hypothesized that sighing acts as a resetter inducing structured variability. Spontaneous breathing was measured in healthy persons (N = 42) during a 20 min period of quiet sitting using the LifeShirt^® System. Four blocks of 10 breaths with a 50 % window overlap were determined before and after spontaneous sighs. Total respiratory variability of minute ventilation was measured using the coefficient of variation and structured (correlated) variability was quantified using autocorrelation. Towards a sigh, total variability gradually increased without concomittant changes in correlated variability, suggesting that randomness increased. After a sigh, correlated variability increased. No changes in variability were found in comparable epochs without intermediate sighs. We conclude that a sigh resets structured respiratory variability, enhancing information processing in the respiratory system.