Interoception, the ability to sense and interpret internal bodily states, is fundamental to both physiological regulation and emotional processing. Breathing is a key process regulated by interoceptive signals, as it adapts swiftly to changes in internal conditions and physiological demands, while also shaping interoceptive awareness. Cough is a protective respiratory behavior triggered by interoceptive signals arising from airway irritation, inflammation, or mechanical disturbance, and it can be regulated by modulatory interventions. Building on our dissection of breathing-control circuits, we hypothesized that distinct neural pathways govern different breathing patterns, including specific populations of neurons that respond to modulatory interventions. Our recent work supports this framework, as we identified parallel neural circuits that convey specific interoceptive stimuli from the body to the brain to drive discrete breathing behaviors. Among these, a dedicated vagal–brainstem circuit was found to coordinate cough. We further identified a population of neurons whose activity is modulated by tussive challenges and modulatory interventions, revealing how pharmacological interventions act on the cough-control pathway. Together, these findings define the neural circuit architecture and brainstem neurons that mediate cough, providing a foundation for understanding the cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying cough responses to therapeutics. More broadly, this work highlights the role of interoceptive pathways in shaping respiratory behaviors and strengthens the emerging framework of the lung–brain axis. This abstract was presented at the American Physiology Summit 2026 and is only available in HTML format. There is no downloadable file or PDF version. The Physiology editorial board was not involved in the peer review process.
Nguyen et al. (Fri,) studied this question.