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Cough or sneeze? How the brain knows what to unleash
‘Sneeze neurons’ activated by triggers such as pollen or a viral infection send an achoo signal, whereas cough neurons induce a hack.
To work out which nose neurons cause sneezing, researchers exposed mice to various compounds, each known to activate specific types of ion channel. She thinks it’s likely that their signals travel to the brain’s respiration control centre, where they alter breathing patterns to produce either a cough or a sneeze. The next major challenge is to work out whether similar sets of neurons exist in humans, says neuroscientist Patrik Ernfors at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm.
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