Brain Activations to Dyspnea in Patients With COPD

• Main Authors: Thomas Reijnders, Thierry Troosters, Wim Janssens, Rik Gosselink, Daniel Langer, Paul W. Davenport, Andreas von Leupoldt
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Frontiers Media S.A. 2020-01-01
• Series: Frontiers in Physiology
• Subjects: chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; respiratory related evoked potential; dyspnea; electro encephalogram; brain
• Online Access: https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fphys.2020.00007/full

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.