Regional brain stem activations during capsaicin inhalation using functional magnetic resonance imaging in humans.

Coughing is an airway protective behavior elicited by airway irritation. Animal studies show that airway sensory information is relayed via vagal sensory fibers to termination sites within dorsal caudal brain stem and thereafter relayed to more rostral sites. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in humans, we previously reported that inhalation of the tussigenic stimulus capsaicin evokes a perception of airway irritation ("urge to cough") accompanied by activations in a widely distributed brain network including the primary sensorimotor, insular, prefrontal, and posterior parietal cortices.

Brain activity associated with placebo suppression of the urge-to-cough in humans.

Rationale: Antitussive therapies are accompanied by a substantial placebo effect, indicating that inhibitory circuits in the brain have a significant capacity to regulate cough neural processing. However, essentially nothing is known about the identity of these inhibitory circuits or how they reduce coughing. Understanding these processes may help develop more effective antitussive therapies in the future.

Continuous-combined oral estradiol/drospirenone has no detrimental effect on cognitive performance and improves estrogen deficiency symptoms in early postmenopausal women: a randomized placebo-controlled trial.

Objective: This study aimed to explore the effects of continuous-combined estradiol 1 mg/drospirenone 2 mg (E2D) on cognitive performance in healthy, recently postmenopausal women.

Methods: A 6-month randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study was carried out in a university research center. Participants were 23 healthy postmenopausal women aged 49 to 55 years.

Sensorimotor circuitry involved in the higher brain control of coughing.

There is an overwhelming body of evidence to support the existence of higher brain circuitries involved in the sensory detection of airways irritation and the motor control of coughing. The concept that cough is purely a reflex response to airways irritation is now superseded by the recognition that perception of an urge-to-cough and altered behavioral modification of coughing are key elements of cough disorders associated with airways disease. Understanding the pathways by which airway sensory nerves ascend into the brain and the patterns of neural activation associated with airways irritation will undoubtedly provide new insights into disordered coughing.

The effect of placebo conditioning on capsaicin-evoked urge to cough.

Background: The urge to cough is a clinical symptom of respiratory disease that precedes the motor act of coughing. Although previous studies have shown that cough is particularly susceptible to placebo suppression, it is unclear whether the perception of an urge to cough is also modifiable by placebo. Therefore, we tested the hypothesis that capsaicin-evoked urge to cough could be suppressed by placebo conditioning.