Student: Where have you been?
Professor: Well, I’ve gotten lost deep in the forest of pulmonary physiology. So, for dyspnea described as ‘breathing too deeply’, let me list the paths I’ve covered:
- Starting along the path from the brainstem respiratory centers ,
- through phrenic spinal cord motoneuron,
- and the contracting diaphragm;
- then traveled from its tendon organs up their afferents,
- passing the C4-C5 dorsal root ganglia to external cuneate nucleus,
- and to ventral posterior lateral thalamic nuclei (VPL),
- that acts as a gate for sensations,
- so that only some can become respiratory perceptions.
Student: Wow, what a sensory gating trip. I’m guessing you could go on talking for hours!
Professor: I sure could, and instead, a short, annotated reference list will do.
1. Ventroposterior thalamus and somatosensory gating
Professor: Evidence #1 for Sensory Gating:
a. Some individuals seem to be flooded more by background sound than others:
