Logo image
Back
Learning to breathe: control of the inspiratory-expiratory phase transition shifts from sensory- to central-dominated during postnatal development in rats
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

Learning to breathe: control of the inspiratory-expiratory phase transition shifts from sensory- to central-dominated during postnatal development in rats

Mathias Dutschmann, Michael Mörschel, Ilya A Rybak and Thomas E Dick
The Journal of physiology, v 587(Pt 20), pp 4931-4948
15 Oct 2009
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1113/jphysiol.2009.174599
PMID: 19703965
Featured in Collection :   UN Sustainable Development Goals @ Drexel
url
https://doi.org/10.1113/jphysiol.2009.174599View
Published, Version of Record (VoR) Open

Abstract

Exhalation - drug effects Phrenic Nerve - metabolism Receptors, N-Methyl-D-Aspartate - antagonists & inhibitors Neural Pathways - drug effects Vagus Nerve - metabolism Neural Pathways - growth & development Excitatory Amino Acid Antagonists - administration & dosage Rats Vagus Nerve - drug effects Learning Inhalation - physiology Animals Phrenic Nerve - drug effects Exhalation - physiology 2-Amino-5-phosphonovalerate - administration & dosage Inhalation - drug effects
The hallmark of the dynamic regulation of the transitions between inspiration and expiration is the timing of the inspiratory off-switch (IOS) mechanisms. IOS is mediated by pulmonary vagal afferent feedback (Breuer-Hering reflex) and by central interactions involving the Kölliker-Fuse nuclei (KFn). We hypothesized that the balance between these two mechanisms controlling IOS may change during postnatal development. We tested this hypothesis by comparing neural responses to repetitive rhythmic vagal stimulation, at a stimulation frequency that paces baseline breathing, using in situ perfused brainstem preparations of rats at different postnatal ages. At ages < P15 (P, postnatal days), phrenic nerve activity (PNA) was immediately paced and entrained to the afferent input and this pattern remained unchanged by repetitive stimulations, indicating that vagal input stereotypically dominated the control of IOS. In contrast, PNA entrainment at > P15 was initially insignificant, but increased after repetitive vagal stimulation or lung inflation. This progressive adaption of PNA to the pattern of the sensory input was accompanied by the emergence of anticipatory centrally mediated IOS preceding the stimulus trains. The anticipatory IOS was blocked by bilateral microinjections of NMDA receptor antagonists into the KFn and PNA was immediately paced and entrained, as it was seen at ages < P15. We conclude that as postnatal maturation advances, synaptic mechanisms involving NMDA receptors in the KFn can override the vagally evoked IOS after 'training' using repetitive stimulation trials. The anticipatory IOS may imply a hitherto undescribed form of pattern learning and recall in convergent sensory and central synaptic pathways that mediate IOS.

Metrics

6 Record Views
76 citations in Web of Science
78 citations in Scopus

Details

UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

This publication has contributed to the advancement of the following goals:

#3 Good Health and Well-Being

InCites Highlights

Data related to this publication, from InCites Benchmarking & Analytics tool:

Collaboration types
Domestic collaboration
International collaboration
Web of Science research areas
Neurosciences
Physiology
Logo image