Reviews:
- Yackle, K. & Do. J. The multifunctionality of the brainstem breathing control circuit. Current Opinion in Neurobiology, 2025
- Yackle, K. Transformation of our understanding of breathing control by molecular tools. Annual Review of Physiology, 2023
Breathing and Vocalizing:
We have identified a new brainstem vocalization pattern generator that co-opts breathing to produce complex sounds and the stereotyped timing of syllables within a breath.
- MacDonald et al. The breath shape controls intonation of mouse vocalizations. Elife, 2024. Github Dryad
Wei et al. A novel reticular node in the brainstem synchronizes neonatal crying with breathing. Neuron, 2022 Github
*NPR feature "What crying baby mice could teach us about human speech" *
* Highlighted in Nature Reviews Neuroscience "The sounds of breathing" *
Breathing and Opioids
We have discovered the cellular basis for how opioids stop breathing and characterized which type of opioid signalling slows breathing.
- Bachmutsky, Wei et al. ß-arrestin 2 germline knockout does not attenuate opioid respiratory depression. Elife, 2021
- Bachmutsky et al. Opioids depress breathing through two small brainstem sites. Elife, 2020 Github
Sighs and Arousal
A cellular and molecular basis for how the breathing pacemaker regulates our state of arousal (like slow breathing and calmness) and how sigh breaths are generated.
- Yackle et al., Breathing control center neurons that promote arousal in mice. Science, 2017
- Li, Yackle, Sighing. Curr. Biol., 2017
- Li et al., The peptidergic control circuit for sighing. Nature, 2016