Sensorimotor circuitry involved in the higher brain control of coughing

Seung-Kwon Yang,Ayaka Ando,Michael J Farrell,Jennifer Leech,Ariel Woo,Alice E Mcgovern,Stuart B Mazzone,Simon Phipps

doi:10.1186/1745-9974-9-7

Seung-Kwon Yang, Ayaka Ando + Show 6 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1186/1745-9974-9-7

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Abstract

There is an overwhelming body of evidence to support the existence of higher brain circuitries involved in the sensory detection of airways irritation and the motor control of coughing. The concept that cough is purely a reflex response to airways irritation is now superseded by the recognition that perception of an urge-to-cough and altered behavioral modification of coughing are key elements of cough disorders associated with airways disease. Understanding the pathways by which airway sensory nerves ascend into the brain and the patterns of neural activation associated with airways irritation will undoubtedly provide new insights into disordered coughing. This brief review aims to explore our current understanding of higher order cough networks by summarizing data from recent neuroanatomical and functional studies in animals and humans. We provide evidence for the existence of distinct higher order network components involved in the discrimination of signals arising from the airways and the motor control of coughing. The identification of these network components provides a blueprint for future research and the development of targeted managements for cough and the urge-to-cough.

Highlights

There is an overwhelming body of evidence to support the existence of higher brain circuitries involved in the sensory detection of airways irritation and the motor control of coughing
We have long suspected that higher brain neural pathways are involved in the perception of airway irritation and the behavioral modification of coughing, yet attempts to study this have only recently begun to appear in the scientific literature
The results defined core network components that make up the higher brain sensorimotor control of cough including widespread cortical and subcortical activations that encompass sensory, motor, premotor and limbic structures

Summary

Introduction

There is an overwhelming body of evidence to support the existence of higher brain circuitries involved in the sensory detection of airways irritation and the motor control of coughing. Much of the primary afferent and brainstem processing network involved in reflex cough has been described in detail elsewhere (see references above) and is not the subject of the present review.

Results

Conclusion