Sympathetic rhythms during hyperventilation-induced apnea

The effect of hyperventilation-induced apnea on the respiratory rhythmicity of sympathetic nerve activity was determined using spectral analysis of sympathetic nerve frequencies. Left phrenic, external intercostal, and inferior cardiac sympathetic nerves were recorded in alpha-chloralose-anesthetized, vagotomized, paralyzed, artificially ventilated cats. The respiratory modulation of sympathetic activity during normoventilation was indicated by spectral peaks of sympathetic activity coinciding with respiratory frequencies determined from the phrenic nerve activity of each cat. The spectral peaks of respiratory-related sympathetic activity disappeared during hyperventilation-induced apnea and then reappeared with the return of phrenic nerve activity when normoventilation was resumed. Although sympathetic activity lost its respiratory modulation during hyperventilation, baroreceptor-mediated bilateral carotid occlusion responses and electrocardiogram (R wave)-triggered computer summation of cardiac related sympathetic activity were unaffected. Hence central respiratory inputs on sympathetic pathways in the central nervous system best explain the origin of respiratory-related sympathetic rhythms. Independent sympathetic rhythms of apparent nonrespiratory origin may be due to artificial ventilator influences, baroreflex-autonomic oscillation loops, or Mayer waves.