BERN, Switzerland, Aug. 13 (UPI) -- Swiss researchers have found that an infant's sighing is tied to the development of memory that controls its breathing.
Researchers at the University of Bern said they also found that when pauses in breathing last for a long time, particularly in premature babies, they represent abnormal breathing function. In its most severe form, this condition may be linked to sudden infant death syndrome.
The researchers studied 25 healthy, one-month-old infants during quiet sleep. They constantly monitored the infants' heart rates and oxygen saturation and measured the regulation of breathing, including breath-to-breath air volume, minimum exhaled oxygen and exhaled carbon dioxide.
They found that the breathing pattern in young infants achieves a mathematical rhythm of sorts. It is controlled by long-term memory, which eventually develops an automatic breathing rate of about 40 breaths a minute.
A baby's sighs, they theorized, may play a crucial role in resetting breathing, somewhat like pressing the CTRL+ALT+DEL keys on a computer.
