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. 2018 Nov 2;9:896. doi: 10.3389/fneur.2018.00896

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Copyright © 2018 Deacon-Diaz and Malhotra.

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

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Schematic of ventilatory loop gain. 1, A disturbance to breathing causes a reduction in ventilation below eupnea. 2, Reduced ventilation increases arterial CO₂ (PaCO₂) and reduces arterial O₂ (PaO₂). 3, Controller gain (CG) reflects the sensitivity of the peripheral and central chemoreceptors to blood gases and dictates the magnitude of neural drive to ventilatory muscles (ΔV_E/ΔPaCO₂). 4, Plant gain (PG) represents the effectiveness of the lungs to change blood gases (ΔPaCO₂/ΔV_E). 5, The product of controller and plant gain determines overall loop gain (LG). If loop gain is less than 1 (LG < 1), the fluctuations in ventilation will dampen out and breathing will stabilize. If loop gain is greater than 1 (LG > 1), the fluctuations in ventilation will increase in amplitude and instability will be self-perpetuating.