Anatomy & Physiology › Section T · The respiratory system › Topic T.2
The process of breathing
Your lungs have no muscle of their own to pull air in. Breathing works by changing the volume of the chest so that the pressure inside the lungs dips just below, then rises just above, the pressure of the air outside. This topic explains those pressures, the muscles that create them, the volumes they move and the brainstem circuits that keep the rhythm going.
In this topic
- Air flows down a pressure gradient
- Three pressures
- Inspiration and expiration
- Worked example: Boyle's law in the first moment of a breath
- Resistance, surface tension and compliance
- Lung volumes and capacities
- Worked example: building the capacities
- Worked example: dead space and alveolar ventilation
- Brainstem control of rhythm
- Chemical control: carbon dioxide leads
- Common mistakes to avoid
- Key takeaways
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