Since respiratory depression during formaldehyde (HCHO) inhalation is an important mechanism in reducing the dose received and potentially the toxicity in the nasal passages of exposed animals, this study was conducted to determine if changes in the pattern of minute volume response and nasal deposition occurred in nosepiece challenges to rats after long-term repeated exposures to HCHO. Male Sprague-Dawley rats were exposed to 0, 0.5, 3, or 15 ppm HCHO for 6 h/d, 5 d/wk, for 8 or 16 wk. The preexposed animals and age-specific controls were then submitted to a HCHO nosepiece challenge at the same concentration that was received in the subchronic exposure. Very high nasal deposition was demonstrated in all measurements. There was a diminished maximum minute volume depression in the 16-wk group relative to the 8-wk group. The difference in response was not statistically associated with the subchronic preexposure concentration. The substantial recovery of all initially depressed responses that occurred during the challenges probably diminished the impact of the decreased maximum responses on the resulting nasal deposition over the course of the long-term exposures.