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Real-time magnetic resonance imaging of the human thorax during breathing X-ray video of a female American alligator while breathing. Breathing (spiration [1] or ventilation) is the rhythmical process of moving air into and out of the lungs to facilitate gas exchange with the internal environment, mostly to flush out carbon dioxide and bring in oxygen.
Breathing is normally an unconscious, involuntary, automatic process. The pattern of motor stimuli during breathing can be divided into an inhalation stage and an exhalation stage. Inhalation shows a sudden, ramped increase in motor discharge to the respiratory muscles (and the pharyngeal constrictor muscles ). [ 5 ]
The primary purpose of the respiratory system is the equalizing of the partial pressures of the respiratory gases in the alveolar air with those in the pulmonary capillary blood (Fig. 11). This process occurs by simple diffusion , [ 22 ] across a very thin membrane (known as the blood–air barrier ), which forms the walls of the pulmonary ...
Yawning is a reflex that tends to disrupt the normal breathing rhythm and is believed to be contagious as well. [14] The reason why we yawn is unknown. A common belief is that yawns are a way to regulate the body's levels of O 2 and CO 2, but studies done in a controlled environment with different levels of O 2 and CO 2 have disproved that ...
Breathing, passing air in and out through respiratory organs Aquatic respiration , animals extracting oxygen from water Artificial respiration , the act of simulating respiration, which provides for the overall exchange of gases in the body by pulmonary ventilation, external respiration and internal respiration
[43] [page needed] The lungs also have a sympathetic tone from norepinephrine acting on the beta 2 adrenoceptors in the respiratory tract, which causes bronchodilation. [44] The action of breathing takes place because of nerve signals sent by the respiratory center in the brainstem, along the phrenic nerve from the cervical plexus to the ...
Rapid breathing helps the patient compensate for the decrease in blood pH by increasing the amount of exhaled carbon dioxide, which helps prevent further acid accumulation in the blood. [11] Cheyne–Stokes respiration is a breathing pattern consisting of alternating periods of rapid and slow breathing, which may result from a brain stem injury ...
For example, high blood glucose levels, called hyperglycemia, can boost the number of breathing movements. Conversely, hypoglycemia can reduce the number of fetal breathing movements. Tobacco use is also known to lower fetal breathing rates. Fetal breathing may help tone the muscles in preparation for breathing movements once the fetus is born.