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Firing pattern and location of respiratory neurons in cat medullary raphe nuclei
1Department of Physiology, Faculty of Medicine, Tottori University, Yonago, Japan.
Abstract:
Extracellular spikes of single respiratory neurons were explored in the medullary raphe nuclei in spontaneously breathing decerebrated or Nembutal-anesthetized cats. A total of 26 respiratory neurons, whose spikes were confirmed to originate from the cell bodies, was recorded in the raphe obscurus and pallidus. They could be classified into six types based on the relation of their firing to the phases of respiration: (1) inspiratory (I) decrementing (I-DEC, n = 14), (2) I-frequency modulated (n = 3), (3) I-augmenting (I-AUG, n = 2), (4) late I (n = 2), (5) expiratory (E) augmenting (E-AUG, n = 3) and (6) I-E phase-spanning (I-E PS, n = 2). These results suggest the existence of neurons relating to the control of respiration in the medullary raphe nuclei.