title: Learning to breathe? Feedforward regulation of the inspiratory motor drive.
abstract: Claims have been made that breathing is in part controlled by feedforward regulation. In a classical conditioning paradigm, we investigated anticipatory increases in the inspiratory motor drive as measured by inspiratory occlusion pressure (P100). In an acquisition phase, an experimental group (N=13) received a low-intensity resistive load (5 cmH2O/l/s) for three consecutive inspirations as Conditioned Stimulus (CS), preceding a load of a stronger intensity (20 cmH2O/l/s) for three subsequent inspirations as unconditioned stimulus (US). The control group (N=11) received the low-intensity load for six consecutive inspirations. In a post-acquisition phase both groups received the low-intensity load for six consecutive inspirations. Responses to the CS-load only differed between groups during the first acquisition trials and a strong increase in P100 during the US-loads was observed, which habituated across the experiment. Our results suggest that the disruption caused by adding low to moderate resistive loads to three consecutive inspirations results in a short-lasting anticipatory increase in inspiratory motor drive.
authors: Research Group on Health Psychology University of Leuven, Belgium.
authors: Jonas
authors: J
authors: Zaman
authors: Research Group on Health Psychology University of Leuven, Belgium.
authors: Omer
authors: O
authors: Van den Bergh
authors: Research Group on Health Psychology University of Leuven, Belgium.
authors: Stien
authors: S
authors: Fannes
authors: Research Group on Health Psychology University of Leuven, Belgium. Electronic address: Ilse.VanDiest@ppw.kuleuven.be.
authors: Ilse
authors: I
authors: Van Diest
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000403:Airway Resistance; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007858:Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D018467:Positive-Pressure Respiration, Intrinsic / Q000523:psychology; D012119:Respiration; D015656:Respiratory Mechanics / Q000502:physiology*; D014939:Work of Breathing / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Inspiratory drive; Interoceptive conditioning; Occlusion pressure; Resistive loads; Respiratory learning