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Central Chemoreceptors

  • located at the base of the brain stem
  • monitor changes of Carbon Dioxide levels and send alarm signals to the brain, telling the lungs to breathe faster and more deeply
  • when we’re breathing too quickly, the receptors tell the body to breathe more slowly to increase Carbon Dioxide levels
  • Chemoreception is one the most fundamental functions of life
    • first aerobic life forms had to sense carbon dioxide to avoid it
    • as humans evolved chemoreception became more plastic
      • humans could adapt to changing environments
      • it it the ability to adapt to different levels of Carbon Dioxide and oxygen that helped humans colonize at different (and high) altitudes

Links to this note

  • Breath - The New Science of a Lost Art
  •     -   the need to breathe is activated by a cluster of neurons called [Central Chemoreceptors](/t/central-chemoreceptors/)
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