While the brainstem is in charge of the automatic control of ventilation, the cortex is involved in the voluntary control of breathing but also receives inputs from the brainstem, which influence the perception of breathing and the arousal state and sleep architecture in conditions of hypoxia/hypercapnia. We evaluated in eleven healthy subjects the effects of breath hold (BH: 30 seconds of apneas and 30 seconds of normal breathing) and BH-related CO₂/O₂ changes on electroencephalogram (EEG) global field power (GFP) and regional field power (RFP) in 9 different areas (3 rostrocaudal sections -anterior, central, posterior- and 3 sagittal sections -left, middle, right) in the δ and α bands, by cross correlation analysis. No significant differences were observed in GFP and RFP when comparing free breathing (FB) with the BH task. Within the BH task, the shift from apnea to normal ventilation was accompanied by an increase in the δ power and a decrease in the α power. The end-tidal pressure of CO₂ (P_ETCO₂) was positively correlated with the δ-band and negatively with the α- band with a positive time shift, while an opposite behaviour was found for the end-tidal pressure of O₂ (P_ETO₂). Notably, the time shift between P_ETCO₂/P_ETO₂ signals and cortical activity at RFP was heterogenous and seems to follow a hierarchical activation with the δ-band responding earlier than the α band. Overall, these findings suggest that the effect of BH on the cortex may follow specific ascending pathways from the brainstem and be related to chemoreflex stimulation.

中文翻译：

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屏气任务在健康受试者的脑电图区域场力中引起时间异质性

当脑干负责自动控制通气时，皮质参与呼吸的自愿控制，但也接受脑干的输入，这会影响低氧/高碳酸血症条件下的呼吸感知以及觉醒状态和睡眠结构。我们评估了十一名健康受试者的屏气（BH：30秒呼吸暂停和30秒正常呼吸）和BH相关CO ₂ / O _2的影响δ和α的9个不同区域（3个头尾节－前，中，后和3个矢状节－左，中，右）的脑电图（EEG）总场功率（GFP）和区域场功率（RFP）的变化频带，通过互相关分析。比较自由呼吸（FB）与BH任务时，在GFP和RFP中未观察到显着差异。在BH任务中，从呼吸暂停转变为正常通气伴随着δ功率增加和α功率下降。CO ₂的呼气末压力（P _ET CO ₂）与δ带呈正相关，与α带负相关，且具有正时移，而O ₂的呼气末压力却表现出相反的行为。（P_ET O ₂）。值得注意的是，P _ET CO ₂ / P _ET O ₂信号与RFP处的皮层活动之间的时移是异质的，并且似乎遵循了分层激活，其中δ波段的响应早于α波段。总体而言，这些发现表明BH对皮质的影响可能遵循脑干特定的上升途径，并与化学反射刺激有关。