Changing effect of lung volume on respiratory drive in man

Experiments were conducted on human subjects to study the effect of lung inflation during breath holding on respiratory drive. Two series of experiments were performed: the first to examine respiratory drive during a single breath hold, the second designed to examine the sustained effect of lung inflation on subsequent breath holds. The experiments involved breath holding begun either at the end of a normal expiration or after a maximum inspiration. When breath holding was repeated at 10-min intervals, the increase in BHT produced by lung inflation was greater in short breath holds (after CO2 rebreathing) than in long breath holds (after hyperventilation). If breath holds were made in rapid succession, the first breath hold was much longer when made at total lung capacity than at functional residual capacity, but this effect of lung inflation diminished in subsequent breath holds. It is concluded that the inhibitory effect of lung inflation decays during breath holding and is regained remarkably slowly during the period of breathing immediately after breath holding.