Pontine pneumotaxic center and central respiratory rhythm

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Abstract
The role of the pontine. pneumotaxic center in the production of the eupneic respiratory rhythm was studied in the paralyzed midocol-licular decerebrate cat. Phrenic nerve potentials were used as the index of central respiratory activity. A respirator provided approximately equal periods of sustained inflation and deflation with rate and pressure independently controllable. Bilateral vagotomy yields only small changes in the phrenic discharge pattern. Pretrigeminal midpontine transection causes marked changes in neural activity. The discharge loses is gradually augmenting pattern and abrupt spontaneous termination. The nerve fires continuously throughout the period of deflation and is inhibited only on lung inflation. The degree of inhibition is related to the degree of pulmonary stretch receptor activation. The amplitude of the discharge and degree of augmentation are both sharply reduced. It is concluded that the pneumotaxic center in the rostral pons plays an important role in the recruitment and facilitation necessary to produce the characteristic neural pattern associated with eupnea as well as in the rate-setting mechanism.

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