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Force and Position Control in Humans - The Role of Augmented Feedback

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Published on: June 19, 2016

Obligatory neural feedback control of exercise cardiorespiratory function and performance.

Jerome A Dempsey¹, Barbara J Morgan^2,3

¹John Rankin Laboratory of Pulmonary Medicine, Department of Population Health Sciences, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, United States.

Journal of Applied Physiology (Bethesda, Md. : 1985)

|November 3, 2025

Summary

Neural sensory feedback from muscles, lungs, and blood is essential for cardiorespiratory responses during exercise. This feedback is altered in diseases like heart failure and COPD.

Keywords:

cardiorespiratory chemoreflex exercise performance metaboreflex neural feedback control

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Area of Science:

Cardiorespiratory physiology
Exercise science
Neuroscience

Background:

Neural sensory feedback plays a crucial role in regulating cardiorespiratory responses during exercise.
Understanding these feedback mechanisms is vital for comprehending exercise limitation in both health and disease.

Purpose of the Study:

To review the contributions of four key neural sensory feedback sources to cardiorespiratory responses during exercise.
To examine the role of these feedback mechanisms in exercise limitation in healthy individuals and patients with chronic diseases.

Main Methods:

Review of experimental studies in humans and animals involving blockade or partial blockade of neural feedback mechanisms during physiological exercise.
Analysis of recent research on enhanced feedback contributions in chronic heart failure, COPD, and hypertension.

Main Results:

Neural sensory feedback from locomotor and respiratory muscles, lung stretch receptors, and carotid chemoreceptors is obligatory for cardiorespiratory function, locomotor effort, muscle fatigue, and exercise performance.
Enhanced contributions of these feedback mechanisms are observed in conditions such as chronic heart failure, COPD, and hypertension.

Conclusions:

Neural sensory feedback is fundamental to exercise cardiorespiratory regulation and performance.
Dysregulation and hypersensitivity of these feedback mechanisms contribute to exercise limitation in chronic diseases.
Future research should investigate the interaction of feedback mechanisms with CO2 exchange and explore therapeutic normalization of feedback hypersensitivity.