Perception of Intensity and Unpleasantness for 1‐Breath, 10‐Breath and 10‐Minute Inspiratory Resistive Loaded Breathing in Healthy Adults

Abstract

Respiratory load is key in various respiratory diseases, accompanied by ventilatory compensation, cognitive awareness and affective perception. Loaded breathing can occur for a few breaths, minutes or days. Inspiratory loads elicit breathing sensations associated with behavioral modulation of breathing elicit breathing patterns to maintain alveolar ventilation, minimize work of breathing and minimize aversive load sensations. Increased inspiratory load is associated with cognitively sensing load magnitude and aversive perception of loaded breathing. The aim of this study was to determine the relationship between intensity and unpleasantness perception of 1‐breath, 10‐breath and 10‐minute breathing against extrinsic inspiratory loads. We hypothesized longer inspiration time against an extrinsic load will illicit greater intensity and unpleasant perceptions of the load. Additionally greater magnitude loads will increase perceived intensity and unpleasantness with longer breathing times. Healthy participants were tested while breathing through a non‐rebreathing circuit with inspiratory flow‐resistive loads. For one trial, the subjects inspired for 10 consecutive breaths for each of 5 load magnitudes (R=0, 5, 10, 25, 50, 100 cmH2O/L/s). Subjects estimated their perceived load intensity (MEInt) and unpleasantness (MEUn) for breaths 1 and 10. In a separate trial, the individuals respired with no‐load for 1 minute, then the R=50 cmH2O/l/s load for 10 minutes, followed by 1 minute of no‐load breathing. Subjects estimated their perceived load MEInt and MEUn every minute. In the 10‐breath loading trials, the MEInt increased with increasing load magnitude. There was an increase in MEInt from breath 1 to 10 for R=50 and R=100 cmH2O/L/s. MEUn increased with load magnitude however MEUn breath 1 v. 10 was not significant. The MEInt and MEUn increased from 60 to 600 sec in the 10‐minute trial. These results suggest load magnitude and loaded breathing duration are critical factors in the perception of intensity and unpleasantness.This abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2019 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal.