IMPROVING RECOGNITION OF RESPIRATORY SENSATIONS IN HEALTHY-ADULTS

In two discrimination training studies, we noted improvements in the a bility of healthy individuals to discriminate between respiratory sens ations. We trained individuals to discriminate between respiratory sen sations elicited during inspiration in Experiment 1 and during expirat ion in Experiment 2. We elicited respiratory sensations by having part icipants breathe through circuits that differed in their resistance to air flow. Training, in both experiments, was conducted within the con text of a task in which individuals judged which member of a series of respiratory circuit pairs was easier to breathe through. To improve t he accuracy of judgments, we gave participants feedback of their perfo rmance, and we faded air flow resistance. The latter procedure consist ed of presenting circuit pairs in order of increasing similarity. Indi viduals who received performance feedback with fading of air flow resi stance demonstrated reliable improvements in discrimination from pre- to posttraining in both experiments, but controls, who received either performance feedback or practice in discrimination did not. These fin dings may contribute to improving awareness of respiratory sensations in asthma patients, and thereby bolster efforts to manage asthma.