Single-unit activity in bulbar reticular formation during food ingestion in chronic cats

1. Single-unit activity was recorded from 215 neurons in the medial bulbar reticular formation during the masticatory sequence, from intake to deglutition, of 3 kinds of food (cat food pellets, canned fish, and milk) in 8 chronically prepared, unanesthetized, spontaneously respiring cats with their head fixed to a stereotaxic apparatus without pain or pressure. The firing patterns were compared to the simultaneously recorded EMGs of the jaw-closing and -opening muscles and to the jaw movement. 2. Fifty neurons changed their firing patterns during mastication. Nine neurons increased and one neuron decreased or stopped firing coincident with the masticatory sequence without an apparent rhythmical modulation of frequency corresponding with the masticatory rhythm (nonphasic group). The firing pattern of the remaining 40 neurons was modulated in phase with jaw movement (phasic group); 34 neurons either showed a spike burst or attained the highest firing frequency during the jaw-opening phase (opening type), while 6 neurons did so during the jaw-closing phase (closing type). The firing patterns of each neuron were essentially the same regardless of the kind of food ingested, except for 2 opening-type neurons that showed a rhythmical burst during mastication of solid food and tonic activity during lapping milk. 3. For 16 phasic neurons, there were significant correlations between some aspects of the firing pattern and a parameter of the movement during ingestion of solid food and/or milk. With one exception, these relationships did not appear to be due to sensory feedback. 4. We detected a monosynaptic excitatory projection from 3 opening-type neurons to the anterior digastric motoneurons, and monosynaptic inhibitory projections to the temporal or masseter motoneurons from 3 other opening-type neurons, by spike-triggered averaging of the full-wave rectified EMG of the jaw-closing and -opening muscles. No monosynaptic projections from the closing-type neurons or nonphasic group neurons to either jaw-opener or -closer motoneurons were detected. 5. The instantaneous firing frequency of all 3 inhibitor premotor neurons was positively correlated with the opening velocity, and the firing of 2 was also related to the jaw displacement.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)