Interaction of Mental Factors with Hypercapnic Ventilatory Drive in Man

1. The effect of mental arithmetic tasks on ventilation, breathing pattern, oxygen intake and carbon dioxide output was studied during air breathing and carbon dioxide rebreathing in healthy subjects. 2. Ventilation and breathing frequency increased significantly on performance of the task during 4 min air breathing and 4 min rebreathing; tidal volume was unchanged. The slopes of the ventilatory, frequency and tidal volume responses to carbon …