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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2015 Dec 1.
Published in final edited form as: Respir Physiol Neurobiol. 2014 Sep 16;0:86–92. doi: 10.1016/j.resp.2014.09.004

Figure 3.

Figure 3

Schematic of potential psychophysiological mechanisms of perception of breathlessness. Respiratory sensations are believed to be consciously perceived via a threshold-gated mechanism; only if ventilation is sufficiently changed or attended to, then this respiratory sensation will be gated through to the higher brain centers and the person becomes aware of his or her breathing. Potential mechanisms that might contribute to differential perception of DOE include: 1) altered afferent feedback, 2) modified corollary discharge from the respiratory control center, 3) changed gating threshold for sensory transmission, or 4) decreased or increased input from gating modifiers. The more respiratory sensations are gated through to the sensory cortex, the higher the perception of the intensity of breathlessness would be.