Frontiers in Physiology (Jan 2020)

Brain Activations to Dyspnea in Patients With COPD

  • Thomas Reijnders,
  • Thierry Troosters,
  • Thierry Troosters,
  • Wim Janssens,
  • Wim Janssens,
  • Rik Gosselink,
  • Daniel Langer,
  • Paul W. Davenport,
  • Andreas von Leupoldt

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3389/fphys.2020.00007
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 11

Abstract

Read online

We compared the perception and neural processing of respiratory sensations between 20 COPD patients and 20 healthy controls by means of respiratory-related evoked potentials (RREP) in the electroencephalogram (EEG). RREPs were induced by short inspiratory occlusions while 129-channel EEG was measured. COPD patients rated the occlusions as more intense and unpleasant (p’s < 0.001) and showed higher mean amplitudes for the RREP components P1 (p = 0.0004), N1 (p = 0.024), P2 (p = 0.019), and P3 (p = 0.018). Our results indicate that COPD patients demonstrate greater perception and neural processing of respiratory sensations, which presumably reflects the highly aversive and attention-demanding character of these sensations for COPD patients.

Keywords