The effect of progressive isocapnic hypoxia on the pressure generated by the inspiratory muscle during airway occlusion was studied in 10 awake subjects during normal and obstructed breathing. Isocapnic hypoxia was produced by rebreathing a gas mixture of 6% CO2 in air while the expired gas was passed through a CO2 scrubber so as to maintain PACO2 constant (42.6 mmHg +/- 2.2 SE). Occlusion of the airway was performed randomly for a single breath at FRC. In all 10 subjects maximal pressure (Ppeak) and the pressures measured 100, 200, 300, and 400 ms after the onset of inspiration increased during hypoxia. Furthermore, good correlation was noted between the occlusion pressure response to hypoxia (delta P/DELTA[1/PO2-32]) and simultaneous changes in ventilatory response to hypoxia (delta VI/DELTA[1/PO2-32]). The occlusion pressure response to hypoxia therefore seems to be a reliable measure of respiratory center output. When rebreathing was repeated during inspiratory resistive loading, the occlusion pressure at any given PO2 and delta P/DELTA(1PO2-32) measured in the first 400 ms of inspiration increased in 9 of 10 subjects. Since PACO2 and PAO2 during both control and loaded experiments were the same, the increase in occlusion pressure in the presence of flow-resistive loading appeared to represent a neurally mediated increase in inspiratory motoneuron activity.