Colrain, Ian M.

Davenport, Paul W.

von Leupoldt, Andreas

Wheeler-Hegland, Karen

English

PubMed

Paul W Davenport

Andreas eVon Leupoldt

Karen eWheeler-Hegland

Ian M Colrain

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Frontiers in Physiology

Frontiers in Respiratory Physiology - Grand Challenge

Paul W. Davenport

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www.frontiersin.org October 2010 | Volume 1 | Article 139 | 1
Specialty Grand challenGe article
published: 25 October 2010
doi: 10.3389/fphys.2010.00139
Frontiers in Respiratory Physiology – grand challenge
Paul W. Davenport1*, Andreas von Leupoldt2, Karen Wheeler-Hegland1 and Ian M. Colrain3
1 University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA
2 University of Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany
3 SRI International, Menlo Park, CA, USA
*Correspondence: pdavenpo@ufl.edu
Respiration is one of the most integrated and 
fundamental bodily processes in humans 
and animals. The respiratory system pro-
vides the organism with oxygen necessary 
for all vital functioning and removes meta-
bolic byproducts such as carbon dioxide. 
Failure of the respiratory system is related 
to malfunction of many organ systems with 
severe consequences throughout the organ-
ism. Over the past decades, respiratory 
physiology research has greatly improved 
our understanding of the respiratory sys-
tem by using both human and animal 
models of respiratory function and disease. 
Reductionist methodologies have provided 
increasing understanding of mechanisms of 
respiratory tissue, mechanics, gas exchange, 
and neural control. Advances in molecular 
and genomic research have led to broad-
ening our understanding of the cellular 
mechanisms of the respiratory system and 
body homeostasis. Constructionist method-
ologies have integrated diverse mechanistic 
aspects of respiratory function into a bet-
ter understanding of integrated respiratory 
behaviors. However, previous findings were 
often restricted to one specific research dis-
cipline and poorly integrated with findings 
from other research specialties, although the 
overarching theme remains the respira-
tory system. The dynamic tension between 
reductionist and constructionist research 
produces an iterative pathway to a more 
complete understanding of respiratory 
physiology. The challenge facing us in the 
21st century is to build on major advances 
by applying new reductionist technologies 
and integrating that information in con-
structionist development of whole body 
respiratory function. The mission of this 
journal is to bring together the divergent 
disciplines and methodologies examining 
respiratory physiology in a forum that will 
lead to an integrated understanding of the 
respiratory system.
Respiratory physiology researchers have 
used multiple new or well established meth-
odologies to address the critical features of 
our research hypotheses. Hypothesis testing 
is the basic foundation of all our research. 
Methodologies were developed and will be 
developed as physiologists build our body 
of knowledge and understanding of res-
piratory physiology. Hypothesis testing is 
the foundation of all science that moves our 
field forward and is fundamental to research 
presented in this journal. There are multiple 
ways to approach new research questions 
and there are multiple systems which must 
be investigated to better understand respira-
tory physiology. The challenge before us is 
to embrace existing technologies and invent 
new technologies while keeping the hypoth-
esis at the center of our research.
Another challenge we face is increas-
ing complexity of our mechanistic under-
standing of the respiratory system and its 
integration with other body systems. We 
know that the respiratory system is more 
than just lungs and airways, it includes the 
inspiratory pump, the neural systems that 
control the movement and distribution of 
gases from the lung into the cardiovascular 
system, supply and removal of the blood 
gases essential for life and the psychologi-
cal and behavioral consequences of normal 
and disordered breathing. A unique aspect 
is the respiratory system constantly having 
to meet homeostatic drives while also being 
under volitional and unconscious control 
to serve important behavioral functions. 
Speech, singing, breath-holding, regula-
tion of breathing for athletic endeavors all 
require involvement of cortical and subcor-
tical areas of the central nervous system out-
side those responsible for ventilation and 
basic homeostatic regulation. Likewise, sen-
sation and perception of respiratory signals 
is enhanced relative to that experienced in 
relation to other basic physiological func-
tions, again highlighting a cortical role in 
the processing of respiratory afferent infor-
mation. Therefore, it is clearly important 
to understand that the respiratory system 
functions as an integral component of all 
other physiological systems within the body. 
A major challenge for future research is to 
continue the discovery of those mechanisms 
and processes which integrate respiratory 
function with the whole organism.
With the increasing complexity of our 
understanding respiratory physiology 
we recognize that multiple areas must be 
embraced for our field to grow. This journal 
has a mission to include at least several major 
areas of emphasis of our research as a forum 
for publishing advances in our knowledge of 
respiratory physiology. Systemic respiratory 
physiology needs to engage the behavioral 
control of breathing and the neural basis 
for psychophysiology, respiratory pattern, 
sensations and reflexes. Central airway 
protection (CAP) is a fundamental proc-
ess for preventing or ejecting material that 
could penetrate the lung producing patholo-
gies. Research is needed to provide a better 
understanding of individual CAP reflexes 
and their control of respiration such as swal-
low, laryngeal adduction, expiratory reflex, 
and cough. This must be further extended 
into the integration and coordination of 
CAP mechanisms with neural control and 
behavioral control of breathing. Respiration 
does not occur without pumping, generated 
by the respiratory muscles. New research 
needs to be reported identifying muscle 
control mechanisms, muscle rehabilitation, 
muscle degradation in disease, and muscle 
molecular mechanisms. The mechanical 
changes generated by the respiratory muscle 
pumping forces interact with lung and tissue 
mechanics producing the pressure driving 
forces for air to move in and out of the lung. 
Much is known about respiratory mechan-
ics yet much more needs to be discovered 
and reported. Lung and airway biological 
mechanisms which modulate respiratory 
mechanics, shape the pressure–flow–volume 
characteristics of air movement and altera-
tions with lung pathology must continue 
to be investigated. Ultimately, molecular 
concentrations of oxygen and carbon diox-
ide within the alveolar space set the driv-
ing forces for gas exchange with the blood. 
Frontiers in Psychology | Respiratory Physiology  October 2010 | Volume 1 | Article 139 | 2
Davenport et al. Frontiers in respiratory physiology challenge
ago. However, we should not ignore our 
research roots, housed in journals in our 
paper libraries. We are convinced that – 
although it will remain our responsibility to 
remember and utilize our research founda-
tions published in traditional paper librar-
ies – the present new online, open-access 
model of publishing new discoveries will 
greatly contribute to increase our knowl-
edge on respiratory physiology.
Received: 16 September 2010; accepted: 17 September 2010; 
published online: 25 October 2010.
Citation: Davenport PW, von Leupoldt A, Wheeler-
Hegland K and Colrain IM (2010) Frontiers in Respiratory 
Physiology – grand challenge. Front. Physio. 1:139. doi: 
10.3389/fphys.2010.00139
This article was submitted to Frontiers in Respiratory 
Physiology, a specialty of Frontiers in Physiology.
Copyright © 2010 Davenport, von Leupoldt, Wheeler-
Hegland and Colrain. This is an open-access article subject 
to an exclusive license agreement between the authors and 
the Frontiers Research Foundation, which permits unre-
stricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, 
provided the original authors and source are credited.
reported on the structure and ultrastructure 
of the respiratory system and the relation-
ship between structure and function. Finally, 
when the system fails or a component of the 
system fails, the ability of the body to survive 
is compromised. The relationship between 
pathophysiology and respiratory physiology 
can provide new insights into fundamen-
tal function of the respiratory system as an 
integrated component of body homeostasis. 
This Journal has the challenge of providing 
a forum for reporting new knowledge in 
these divergent and convergent respiratory 
 physiology disciplines.
We are now in the new environment of 
dissemination of our research results to 
our colleagues. Reporting of our research 
is rapidly moving from paper libraries to 
digital libraries. The availability of research 
results with new online, open-access jour-
nals such as the Frontiers in Respiratory 
Physiology engages researchers worldwide 
with immediacy unforeseen a few decades 
The interface for gas exchange and oxygen/
carbon dioxide transport is fundamental to 
delivering oxygen to the tissues and removal 
of metabolic byproducts. These mechanisms 
develop throughout an animal’s life history 
from fetus to old age. New information on 
the life-history progression of the respira-
tory system is needed for us to expand our 
understanding of life-stage dependent res-
piratory function. Our research must use 
multiple models from non-invasive human 
studies to invasive animal studies to math-
ematical modeling of the respiratory system. 
Continued development of models of the 
respiratory system will allow us to engage 
new techniques for investigating the mecha-
nisms predicted by these models. Adequate 
modeling of respiratory components will 
also predict methods of interaction using 
pharmacological agents and environmental 
impacts on respiratory function. All models 
have both functional and structural com-
ponents, hence, essential research must be 


Crossref

Davenport, PW

von Leupoldt, A

Wheeler-Hegland, K

Colrain, IM

University of Melbourne Institutional Repository

Frontiers in respiratory physiology - grand challenge.

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Frontiers in Respiratory Physiology – Grand Challenge

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