Heterogeneity of cough neurobiology: Clinical implications

Abstract

Cough is an important protective mechanism for clearing the airways but becomes a troublesome, and often difficult to treat, symptom in respiratory disease. Although cough can be produced as a reflex in response to the presence of irritants within the airways, emerging research demonstrates an unappreciated complexity in the peripheral and central neural systems that regulate cough. This complexity includes multiple primary sensory neurons that can induce or facilitate reflex coughing, different ascending central circuits in the brain that contribute to cough sensory discrimination and the perception of the urge-to-cough, and several descending brain systems for inducing, facilitating and in..