Sensory surprise leads to cortical phase reset, but it can also drive neurophysiological changes in behavior such as motor inhibition. We tested if attention to auditory deviants leads to phase reset and entrainment of respiratory cycles. We asked 25 healthy young adult participants to detect deviant pure tones embedded within an isochronous roving standard paradigm. Deviant events occurred either after 3, 6 or 9 standard events, defining a hazard rate of event onset, while the magnitude and direction of deviancy were randomized. Results show that respiration entrained not to the stimulation rate (2 Hz) but to the cycle reflecting the greatest common divisor of the temporal sequences (3 standard events, 0.67 Hz), acting as a top-down, hierarchical operator to chunk incoming standard sequences. Respiratory entrainment did not occur within a passive listening setup, confirming its role in attentive selection.