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

TITLE=Brain Activations to Dyspnea in Patients With COPD

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Physiology

VOLUME=11

YEAR=2020

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/physiology/articles/10.3389/fphys.2020.00007

DOI=10.3389/fphys.2020.00007

ISSN=1664-042X

ABSTRACT=<p>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 (<italic>p</italic>’s &lt; 0.001) and showed higher mean amplitudes for the RREP components P1 (<italic>p</italic> = 0.0004), N1 (<italic>p</italic> = 0.024), P2 (<italic>p</italic> = 0.019), and P3 (<italic>p</italic> = 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.</p>