Adenosine Triphosphate

The overall goal of this study is to address fundamental questions regarding how the molecule acetylcholine interacts with the sympathetic nervous system to regulate blood flow and oxygen delivery to working skeletal muscle in young and older adults. With advancing age, blood vessels supplying active muscle lose their ability to override sympathetic constriction, which limits delivery of oxygen and results in fatigue. Findings from these studies will serve as the foundation for new strategies to improve regional blood flow regulation in older adults and clinical populations, which will increase quality of life and help to preserve functional independence.

Persistent cough is a distressing symptom for people with respiratory disorders. Patients also often experience an ongoing urge-to-cough that prompts coughing, and which fails to resolve the sensation. Understanding how the brain controls cough and the urge-to-cough could lead to new cough suppressing therapies. The overall objective of this project is to use functional brain imaging (fMRI) to identify brain regions that are involved in the exaggerated urge-to-cough in humans with chronic cough. Our focus will be on the brainstem where information from the airways first arrives in the central nervous system.