Towards an Understanding of the Neurophysiology of the Human Cough Reflex

咳嗽对于保护我们的肺免受伤害是必不可少的。然而，许多人都有令人烦恼的咳嗽，这种咳嗽会导致大小便失禁、尴尬或抑郁等问题，从而干扰他们的生活。任何持续8周以上的咳嗽都称为慢性咳嗽。不幸的是，现有的咳嗽药物往往无效。为了开发新的治疗方法，我们需要更多地了解人体内发生的导致慢性咳嗽的变化。咳嗽和疼痛在很多方面是相似的。正如大脑通过释放类似吗啡的物质来控制我们感受到的疼痛一样，大脑也可能控制咳嗽。这项研究将调查大脑是否不再有效地控制慢性咳嗽患者的咳嗽。我的目标是证明：(I)大脑释放类似吗啡的物质，可以控制健康人的咳嗽，但对慢性咳嗽的人则不是。(Ii)大脑控制女性咳嗽的效率较低，这解释了为什么更多的女性患上慢性咳嗽。

Coughing is essential to protect our lungs from harm. However, many people have a troublesome cough that interferes with their life by causing problems like incontinence, embarrassment or depression. Any cough lasting more than 8 weeks is known as a chronic cough. Unfortunately, existing cough medications are often ineffective. To develop new treatments we need to understand more about the changes that occur in the human body that can lead to chronic cough. Cough and pain are similar in many ways. Just as the brain has control over the amount of pain we feel by releasing morphine-like substances, the brain may also control coughing. This study will investigate whether the brain is no longer effective at controlling coughing in people with chronic cough. I aim to show that:(i) The brain releases morphine-like substances which control coughing in healthy people, but not for people with chronic cough.(ii) The brain is less effective at controlling coughing in women, explaining why more women develop a chronic cough.