How the brain creates ongoing breathlessness
Official title: Characterizing the Sensory and Affective Neural Components of Persistent Dyspnea
Funded at Feinstein Institute for Medical Research · NIH-11166345 · Data updated 2026-11-12
Researchers are recording brain signals from people who already have implanted epilepsy electrodes to understand how higher brain regions produce ongoing breathlessness in conditions like COPD, asthma, heart or neuromuscular disease.
Quick facts
| Grant type | R01 grant |
|---|---|
| Study type | NIH-funded research |
| Funding institution | Feinstein Institute for Medical Research NIH-funded |
| Lab location | 1 site (Manhasset, United States) |
| Project start | August 5, 2022 |
| Project end | June 30, 2027 |
| Funding year | 2025 |
| Award (this year) | $414,633 |
| NIH project number | 5R01HL163578-04 |
| Project ID | NIH-11166345 on NIH RePORTER |
Who could benefit from this research
✓Could help
Ideal candidates are people already undergoing intracranial electrode implantation for epilepsy monitoring who can report episodes of breathlessness.
✕Less likely to help
People without implanted brain electrodes or whose breathlessness is due solely to easily reversible lung problems are unlikely to be eligible or to directly benefit from participating.
What this research studies
If you join, researchers will use recordings from brain electrodes already implanted for epilepsy care to capture fast, deep brain activity linked to feelings of breathlessness. They will compare moments when you feel breathing discomfort to times you don't and separate direct sensory signals from emotional or affective responses. The team aims to pinpoint cortical circuits that amplify breathlessness so future treatments can change perception without harming breathing. The work combines human intracranial recordings with other human and animal data to link specific brain pathways to the symptom.
Why it matters
Potential benefit: This work could lead to treatments that reduce breathlessness by targeting specific brain circuits without suppressing breathing.
How similar studies have gone: Previous noninvasive EEG and fMRI studies suggested higher brain involvement in dyspnea but lacked the depth and timing resolution of intracranial recordings, so this approach is novel and builds on limited human data.
Where this research is happening
-
Feinstein Institute for Medical Research
Manhasset, United States Active
Researchers
- Principal investigator: Herrero Rubio, Jose Luis — Feinstein Institute for Medical Research
- Study coordinator: Herrero Rubio, Jose Luis
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About this research
- This is an active NIH-funded research project — typically early-stage science, not a clinical trial accepting patient enrollment.
- Some NIH-funded labs run parallel clinical studies or seek volunteers for related work. To check, contact the principal investigator or institution listed above.
- For full project details, budget, and progress reports, visit the official NIH RePORTER page.