It was reported in the past decade that a targeted gene inactivation of some transcription factors could specifically affect the development of some groups of neurons in the brainstem and then resulted in distinct respiratory phenotypes 近年来，人们利用分子生物学技术研究发现，小鼠某些基因突变可影响呼吸中枢特定神经元的发育，并由此导致特殊的呼吸表型。
