Neurophysiological Evidence for a Cortical Contribution to the Wakefulness-Related Drive to Breathe Explaining Hypocapnia-Resistant Ventilation in Humans.

Human ventilatory activity persists, during wakefulness, even when hypocapnia makes it unnecessary. This peculiarity of human breathing control is important to speech and speech-breathing insofar as speech induces hypocapnia. This study evidences a specific respiratory-related cortical activity. This suggests that human hypocapnic breathing is driven, at least in part, by cortical mechanisms similar to those involved in volitional breathing, in breathing against mechanical constraints or with weak inspiratory muscle, and in patients with defective medullary breathing pattern generators. This fuels the notion that the human ventilatory drive during wakefulness often results from a corticosubcortical cooperation, and opens new avenues to study certain ventilatory and speech disorders.