Editing Control of ventilation (section)

=== Control of ventilatory pattern ===
Ventilation is normally unconscious and automatic, but can be overridden by [[conscious breathing|conscious alternative patterns]].<ref name="Pocock"/> Thus the emotions can cause yawning, laughing, sighing (etc.), social communication causes speech, song and whistling, while entirely voluntary overrides are used to blow out candles, and breath holding (for instance, to swim underwater). [[Hyperventilation]] may be entirely voluntary or in response to emotional agitation or anxiety, when it can cause the distressing [[hyperventilation syndrome]]. The voluntary control can also influence other functions such as the [[heart rate]] as in [[Yoga#Ascetic practices|yoga]] practices and [[meditation]].<ref name="yoga-reticularis">{{cite book|last1=Prasad|first1=K.N. |editor1-last=Udupa |editor1-first=R.C.|title=Stress and its management by yoga |date=1985 |publisher=Motilal Banarsidass |location=Delhi |isbn=978-8120800007 |pages=26 ff |edition=2nd rev. and enl. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OluYV0Xe9hEC&pg=PA26 |access-date=17 July 2014}}</ref>

The ventilatory pattern is also temporarily modified by complex reflexes such as sneezing, straining, burping, coughing and vomiting.