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Control of breathing by interacting pontine and pulmonary feedback loops
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

Control of breathing by interacting pontine and pulmonary feedback loops

Yaroslav I Molkov, Bartholomew J Bacak, Thomas E Dick and Ilya A Rybak
Frontiers in neural circuits, v 7, pp 16-16
24 Jan 2013
PMID: 23408512
url
https://doi.org/10.3389/fncir.2013.00016View
Published, Version of Record (VoR) Open

Abstract

pulmonary feedback Neuroscience ventrolateral respiratory column apneusis brainstem pontine-medullary interactions pre-Bötzinger complex respiratory central pattern generator control of breathing
The medullary respiratory network generates respiratory rhythm via sequential phase switching, which in turn is controlled by multiple feedbacks including those from the pons and nucleus tractus solitarii; the latter mediates pulmonary afferent feedback to the medullary circuits. It is hypothesized that both pontine and pulmonary feedback pathways operate via activation of medullary respiratory neurons that are critically involved in phase switching. Moreover, the pontine and pulmonary control loops interact, so that pulmonary afferents control the gain of pontine influence of the respiratory pattern. We used an established computational model of the respiratory network (Smith et al., 2007 ) and extended it by incorporating pontine circuits and pulmonary feedback. In the extended model, the pontine neurons receive phasic excitatory activation from, and provide feedback to, medullary respiratory neurons responsible for the onset and termination of inspiration. The model was used to study the effects of: (1) “vagotomy” (removal of pulmonary feedback), (2) suppression of pontine activity attenuating pontine feedback, and (3) these perturbations applied together on the respiratory pattern and durations of inspiration ( T I ) and expiration ( T E ). In our model: (a) the simulated vagotomy resulted in increases of both T I and T E , (b) the suppression of pontine-medullary interactions led to the prolongation of T I at relatively constant, but variable T E , and (c) these perturbations applied together resulted in “apneusis,” characterized by a significantly prolonged T I . The results of modeling were compared with, and provided a reasonable explanation for, multiple experimental data. The characteristic changes in T I and T E demonstrated with the model may represent characteristic changes in the balance between the pontine and pulmonary feedback control mechanisms that may reflect specific cardio-respiratory disorders and diseases.

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Collaboration types
Domestic collaboration
Web of Science research areas
Neurosciences
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