ReviewBiological psychology2022
The psychophysiology of the sigh: II: The sigh from the psychological perspective.
Review in Biological psychology, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 10 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
10 citing papers in PubMed, 19 citations in OpenAlex.
- Tolerability, Safety and Effectiveness of Sigh Introduction During Non-Invasive Mechanical Ventilation Cycles in Patients With Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis.European journal of neurology · 2026Trial
- Cyclic sighing in the clinic waiting room may decrease pain: results from a pilot randomized controlled trial.Journal of behavioral medicine · 2025Trial
- Sighing Dynamics as a Candidate Digital Biomarker for Anxiety in Daily Life Using Wearable Respiratory Monitoring: Intensive Longitudinal Study.JMIR formative research · 2026Article
- Astrocyte activation in the ventrolateral medulla modulates breathing and arousal states.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Dissecting Cardiovascular Responses to a Fixed-Interval Volitional Sighing Protocol Using a Mixed Modeling Approach.Psychophysiology · 2026Article
- Sighs Shape Respiratory Variability and Pupil Dynamics and Adapt to Sustained Attention Demands.Psychophysiology · 2026Article
- An objective method to detect sighs during cardio-pulmonary exercise testing.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- An inspiration-off attractor supports the robust and flexible control of breathing.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Neuroanatomical and neurochemical organization of brainstem and forebrain circuits involved in breathing regulation.Journal of neurophysiology · 2025Review
- Cervical spinal cord hemisection impacts sigh and the respiratory reset in male rats.Physiological reports · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors at 3 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
Abstract
A sigh is a distinct respiratory behavior with specific psychophysiological roles. In two accompanying reviews we will discuss the physiological and psychological functions of the sigh. The present review will focus on the psychological functions of the sigh. We discuss the regulatory effects of a sigh, and argue how these effects may become maladaptive when sighs occur excessively. The adaptive role of a sigh is discussed in the context of regulation of psychophysiological states. We propose that sighs facilitate transitions from one psychophysiological state to the next, and this way contribute to psychophysiological flexibility, via a hypothesized resetting mechanism. We discuss how a sigh resets respiration, by controlling mechanical and metabolic properties of respiration associated with respiratory symptoms. Next, we elaborate on a sigh resetting emotional states by facilitating emotional transitions. We attempt to explain the adaptive and maladaptive functions of a sigh in the framework of stochastic resonance, in which we propose occasional, spontaneous sighs to be noise contributing to psychophysiological regulation, while excessive sighs result in psychophysiological dysregulation. In this context, we discuss how sighs can contribute to therapeutic interventions, either by increasing sighs to improve regulation in case of a lack of sighing, or by decreasing sighs to restore regulation in case of excessive sighing. Finally, a research agenda on the psychology of sighs is presented.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.