Medullary Respiratory System Essay

The respiratory system is responsible for the balance of oxygen and carbon dioxide in the body to meet metabolic demands. The way a person’s breathe can be affected is by emotions and/or changes in the internal environment. The breathing process is mainly controlled by the brainstem and peripheral system. The brainstem controls several important functions of the body like arousal, breathing, and blood pressure, among other functions. In the brainstem, the medullary respiratory center consists of two neuronal clusters: the DRG (dorsal respiratory group), which are in charge of the inspiratory and the VRG (ventral respiratory group), which triggers the expiration process in the lungs. The breathing process starts at the mouth and nose, air travels down into the trachea, also known as the windpipe. Then the trachea …show more content…
The frequency and the way a human breath “can also change in response to changes in emotions, such as sadness, happiness, anxiety or fear” (Homma) The central chemoreceptors in the medulla, is also responsible for the increase of breathing rate. This phenomena happens when the peripheral chemoreceptors in the aortic and carotid bodies detects an increase in the concentration of CO2 in the blood. Other factors like speech, disease, and body position can affect the breathing rate.
Scientists and researchers have come with different ways of measuring and obtain data from the way a person breathe and from the breathing cycle. Some of the data that can be measure from the breathing cycle is the tidal volume, breath period, inhalation and exhalation. The tidal volume is the “volume of air inhaled or exhaled” (LabScribe Manual). Breath period “is the duration of each breathing cycle” (LabScribe Manual). Inhalation is the amount of air a person bring in to their lung, and exhalation is the amount of air that came out of the