Ventilatory and gas exchange responses to cycling with sinusoidally varying pedal rate

To investigate factors controlling ventilation under conditions where the applied work load remains constant, but where hypothesized proprioceptive influences would be expected to vary, five subjects exercised at a constant work rate of 50 W on a cycle ergometer at pedaling rates which varied sinusoidally between 40 and 80 rpm. Each subject exercised continuously for 30 min at each of five sinusoidal periods. Minute ventilation (VE), carbon dioxide output (VCO2), oxygen uptake (VO2), and heart rate were computed breath-by-breath and amplitude and phase relations were extracted. We observed small fluctuations in VCO2 and VO2 engendered by varying metabolic requirements of moving the legs at varying rates. VE fluctuations were closely in phase with VCO2 and the amplitudes of the fluctuations were highly significantly correlated (r = 0.83, P less than 0.001); consequently end-tidal carbon dioxide tension fluctuations were small. Variation of pedaling rate, therefore, did not produce a ventilatory response independent of the effect of VCO2. The ventilatory responses to these forcings are inconsistent with an appreciable role for neurally mediated influences from the exercising limbs and provide further evidence that the exercise hyperpnea is linked to CO2 flow to the central circulation.