I have a long-standing interest in the analysis of neural circuits and sensory-motor integration. Early work described interactions among simultaneously recorded ensembles of sensory neurons and motor neurons. Statistical methods revealed evidence for roles of spike timing and synchrony in the “ensemble coding” and gain control of parallel proprioceptive input channels and the generation of motor neuron proprioceptive fields. Subsequent research has focused on the mammalian brainstem network for respiratory motor pattern generation and circuit mechanisms for breathing-related airway defensive behaviors. My colleagues and I have enhanced and developed multi-array recording methods and high-throughput technologies for parallel spike train recordings and the analysis and representation of neuronal assemblies and their dynamics during breathing and its modulation by various sensory perturbations. Starting in the 1980s, we used multiple electrode arrays to identify pontine-medullary interactions and a "rostral-to-caudal polarity" of pre-premotor neuron excitation from what came to be called the pre-Bötzinger complex. Those results informed the development of computational network models. Specific model-derived predictions have motivated and guided subsequent experiments, including studies on: (i) transient network reconfiguration during cough and other airway defensive reflexes; (ii) baroreceptor-evoked influences on circuits modulating breathing and cardio-respiratory coupling; (iii) carotid chemoreceptor induced long-term facilitation of inspiratory drive – a respiratory “memory”; and (iv) intra-pontine and parallel circuits for pontomedullary interactions, including pathways through intervening raphé neurons. Our current goals are to define the functional connectivity linking brainstem chemoresponsive regions to respiratory motor pattern generating circuits and the adaptive reconfiguration of the network during perturbations of blood gases, in asthma, and during breathing-related behaviors.