Effects of added inspiratory loads on load detection thresholds.

To examine the effects of continuously added background inspiratory loads on the difference thresholds for resistive (delta R50) and elastic load detection (delta E50), 12 healthy subjects were studied. The results showed that, whereas the addition of a constant background elastic load significantly altered delta R50, the addition of a constant background resistive load did not significantly affect delta E 50. These results can be explained on the basis that the addition of a constant elastic load alters the total sensory information a midbreath, where resistive load detection occurs, but the addition of a constant resistive load does not affect elastic load detection, which occurs at the end of the breath where flow-dependent information is minimal.