Breathing is a behavior that has to be extremely adaptive to changes in environmental, metabolic and behavioral conditions. The demand to be adaptive is met by a respiratory neuronal network that is very plastic. This symposium will provide novel insights into the neuronal mechanisms that mediate the reconfiguration of the respiratory network in response to changes in environmental, metabolic and behavioral conditions. We will discuss how the respiratory network reconfigures during coughing, gasping, sighing and swallowing, how afferent inputs reconfigure different components of the respiratory network and how hypoxic stimuli reconfigure and re-assemble the respiratory network.