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Updated: Jul 23, 2026

Electrophysiological Investigations of Retinogeniculate and Corticogeniculate Synapse Function
Published on: August 7, 2019
Short-term potentiation of carotid chemoreflex: an NMDAR-dependent neural integrator
C S Poon1, M S Siniaia, D L Young
1Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge 02139, USA.
Abstract:
Repetitive stimulation of the carotid sinus nerve (CSN) elicits a short-term potentiation (STP) of the reflex response in respiratory motor output in mammals. The input-output transformation approximates a leaky integrator with a time constant of several seconds. Here, we showed that STP induced by CSN stimulation in rats was manifested in the reflex response in the amplitude of rhythmic phrenic nerve activity as well as its duration. Moreover, pharmacological blockade of NMDA receptors (NMDAR) resulted in marked increases in the time constants of the equivalent neural integrator in both the STP induction phase (by 10- to 20-fold) and recovery phase (by 1- to 5-fold). Thus, NMDAR serves as a molecular switch that facilitates the integrative processing of CSN inputs by STP.
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