Yackle Kevin, Schwarz Lindsay A, Kam Kaiwen, Sorokin Jordan M, Huguenard John R, Feldman Jack L, Luo Liqun, Krasnow Mark A
Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Department of Biochemistry, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA 94305, USA.
Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Department of Biology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA.
Science. 2017 Mar 31;355(6332):1411-1415. doi: 10.1126/science.aai7984. Epub 2017 Mar 30.
Slow, controlled breathing has been used for centuries to promote mental calming, and it is used clinically to suppress excessive arousal such as panic attacks. However, the physiological and neural basis of the relationship between breathing and higher-order brain activity is unknown. We found a neuronal subpopulation in the mouse preBötzinger complex (preBötC), the primary breathing rhythm generator, which regulates the balance between calm and arousal behaviors. Conditional, bilateral genetic ablation of the ~175 / double-positive preBötC neurons in adult mice left breathing intact but increased calm behaviors and decreased time in aroused states. These neurons project to, synapse on, and positively regulate noradrenergic neurons in the locus coeruleus, a brain center implicated in attention, arousal, and panic that projects throughout the brain.
几个世纪以来，缓慢、有控制的呼吸一直被用于促进精神平静，临床上也用其来抑制过度的觉醒，如惊恐发作。然而，呼吸与高阶脑活动之间关系的生理和神经基础尚不清楚。我们在小鼠前包钦格复合体（preBötC）中发现了一个神经元亚群，它是主要的呼吸节律发生器，可调节平静行为和觉醒行为之间的平衡。对成年小鼠中约175个双阳性preBötC神经元进行条件性双侧基因消融后，呼吸保持正常，但平静行为增加，觉醒状态的时间减少。这些神经元投射到蓝斑中的去甲肾上腺素能神经元，与其形成突触并对其进行正向调节，蓝斑是一个与注意力、觉醒和惊恐有关的脑中枢，其投射遍布整个大脑。
