Bötzinger expiratory neurons may inhibit phrenic motoneurons and medullary inspiratory neurons during vomiting.

During vomiting, phrenic motoneurons exhibit bursts of vigorous discharge while bulbospinal inspiratory neurons are mostly silent. To determine how this activity pattern correlates with the behavior of Bötzinger (BOT) expiratory (E) neurons, which inhibit both phrenic motoneurons and medullary inspiratory neurons, we recorded from 20 augmenting BOT E neurons in decerebrate, paralyzed cats. During fictive vomiting, all BOT E neurons fired between bursts of phrenic discharge and thus could contribute to the concurrent lack of firing of phrenic motoneurons.