Diving reflex

The diving reflex, also known as the diving response and mammalian diving reflex, is a set of physiological responses to immersion that overrides the basic homeostatic reflexes, and is found in all air-breathing vertebrates studied to date.^[1][2][3] It optimizes respiration by preferentially distributing oxygen stores to the heart and brain, enabling submersion for an extended time.

The diving reflex is exhibited strongly in aquatic mammals, such as seals,^[1][4] otters, dolphins,^[5] and muskrats,^[6] and exists as a lesser response in other animals, including human babies up to 6 months old (see infant swimming), and diving birds, such as ducks and penguins.^[1] Adult humans generally exhibit a mild response, the dive-hunting Sama-Bajau people being a notable outlier.^[7]

The diving reflex is triggered specifically by chilling and wetting the nostrils and face while breath-holding,^[2][8][9] and is sustained via neural processing originating in the carotid chemoreceptors. The most noticeable effects are on the cardiovascular system, which displays peripheral vasoconstriction, slowed heart rate, redirection of blood to the vital organs to conserve oxygen, release of red blood cells stored in the spleen, and, in humans, heart rhythm irregularities.^[2] Although aquatic animals have evolved profound physiological adaptations to conserve oxygen during submersion, the apnea and its duration, bradycardia, vasoconstriction, and redistribution of cardiac output occur also in terrestrial animals as a neural response, but the effects are more profound in natural divers.^[1][3]