New brainstem model reveals how brains control breathing

Scientists from Karolinska Institutet, Sweden, have discovered how the brain controls our breathing in response to changing oxygen and carbon dioxide levels in the blood.

“Our findings go some way to explaining how and why our breathing responses to imbalanced oxygen and carbon dioxide levels are impaired during infectious episodes. It also helps further our understanding of why infection can inhibit breathing so severely in new-born babies,” says Eric Herlenius, Professor at KBH, and senior author of the paper.