Abstract
During breathing, the diaphragm and abdominal muscles contract out of phase. However, during other behaviors (including vomiting, postural adjustments, and locomotion) simultaneous contractions are required of the diaphragm and other muscle groups including abdominal muscles. Recent studies in cats using transneuronal tracing techniques showed that in addition to neurons in the respiratory groups, cells in the inferior and lateral vestibular nuclei (VN) and medial pontomedullary reticular formation (MRF) influence diaphragm activity. The goal of the present study was to determine whether neurons in these regions have collateralized projections to both diaphragm motoneurons and the lumbar spinal cord. For this purpose, the transneuronal tracer rabies virus was injected into the diaphragm, and the monosynaptic retrograde tracer Fluoro-Gold (FG) was injected into the Th13-L1 spinal segments. A large fraction of MRF and VN neurons (median of 72 and 91%, respectively) that were infected by rabies virus were dual-labeled by FG. These data show that many MRF and VN neurons that influence diaphragm activity also have a projection to the lumbar spinal cord and thus likely are involved in coordinating behaviors that require synchronized contractions of the diaphragm and other muscle groups.
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Acknowledgments
The authors thank Lucy Cotter, James Lois, and Derek Reighard for technical assistance, as well as Dr. Peter Strick for providing rabies virus and anti-rabies antibodies. Funding was provided by grant R01-DC003732 from the National Institutes of Health (USA). Core support was provided by grant P40-RR-018604 from the National Center for Research Resources of the National Institutes of Health.
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Rice, C.D., Weber, S.A., Waggoner, A.L. et al. Mapping of neural pathways that influence diaphragm activity and project to the lumbar spinal cord in cats. Exp Brain Res 203, 205–211 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-010-2197-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-010-2197-3