SynthesisPflugers Archiv : European journal of physiology2023
Inconclusive evidence that breathing shapes pupil dynamics in humans: a systematic review.
Synthesis in Pflugers Archiv : European journal of physiology, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 13 papers.
What it found
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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.
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Who cites it
13 citing papers in PubMed, 17 citations in OpenAlex.
- Article
- The Rhythmic Embodied Perception Framework of breath, brain, and perception.Neuroscience of consciousness · 2026Review
- Pupillary Hippus as a Biomarker: Spectral Signatures and Complexity Approaches in Autonomic and Clinical Contexts.Bioengineering (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Respiration Facilitates Behavior During Multisensory Integration.Psychophysiology · 2025Article
- Reliability and reactivity of heart rate variability and pupillometry in response to controlled autonomic perturbations in university students.Behavior research methods · 2025Article
- The Frequency and State-Dependent Relationship between Pupil Size and Respiration.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2025Article
- The pupillary respiratory-phase response: pupil size is smallest around inhalation onset and largest during exhalation.The Journal of physiology · 2025Article
- Paced Breathing Associated With Pupil Diameter Oscillations at the Same Rate and Reduced Lapses in Attention.Psychophysiology · 2025Article
- Arousal and sustained attention fluctuate differently with respiration in younger and older adults.Imaging neuroscience (Cambridge, Mass.) · 2025Article
- Low-cost physiology and behavioral monitor for intravital imaging in small mammals.Neurophotonics · 2025Article
- A Dynamic Link between Respiration and Arousal.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2024Article
- Coupling of anticipation and breathing in expert flute performance: the influence of musical structure and practice.Frontiers in cognition · 2024Article
- Body and mind: how somatic feedback signals shape brain activity and cognition.Pflugers Archiv : European journal of physiology · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
More than 50 years ago, it was proposed that breathing shapes pupil dynamics. This widespread idea is also the general understanding currently. However, there has been no attempt at synthesizing the progress on this topic since. We therefore conducted a systematic review of the literature on how breathing affects pupil dynamics in humans. We assessed the effect of breathing phase, depth, rate, and route (nose/mouth). We followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines, and conducted a systematic search of the scientific literature databases MEDLINE, Web of Science, and PsycInfo in November 2021. Thirty-one studies were included in the final analyses, and their quality was assessed with QualSyst. The study findings were summarized in a descriptive manner, and the strength of the evidence for each parameter was estimated following the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development, and Evaluation (GRADE) approach. The effect of breathing phase on pupil dynamics was rated as "low" (6 studies). The effect of breathing depth and breathing rate (6 and 20 studies respectively) were rated as "very low". Breathing route was not investigated by any of the included studies. Overall, we show that there is, at best, inconclusive evidence for an effect of breathing on pupil dynamics in humans. Finally, we suggest some possible confounders to be considered, and outstanding questions that need to be addressed, to answer this fundamental question. Trial registration: This systematic review has been registered in the international prospective register of systematic reviews (PROSPERO) under the registration number: CRD42022285044.
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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.