Pentobarbitone effects on respiration related units; selective depression of bulbopontine reticular neurones.

Respiration related units (RRUs) were recorded in cats, locally anesthetized, vagotomized and immobilized, under two different experimental conditions: (1) receiving pentobarbitone intravenously at a dose inducing slight but highly significant changes in phrenic discharge; (2) unanesthetized, with a spinal section at C6. RRU characteristics were analysed in unitary volumes constituted by cubes of a matrix including the brain stem. Four parameters of RRU discharges were compared in cubes = RRU density (RRUD), RRU proportion and two indices of respiratory modulation. Cubes were sampled in: (1) dorsal and ventral bulbar respiratory nuclei, (2) pneumotaxic centre (PC), and (3) seven fields of the bulbopontine and mesencephalic reticular formation. Using the paired sample method for comparing data cube by cube in the two conditions it was shown that under pentobarbitone, RRU activity was profoundly depressed in the reticular formation surrounding dorsal and ventral bulbar respiratory nuclei, in the region bridging the gap between these and the pneumotaxic centre and extending from the pneumotaxic level to the decussation of the brachium conjunctivum. In contrast RRU activity was unchanged at the level of dorsal and ventral bulbar respiratory nuclei and in the nucleus parabrachiallis medialis (NPBM) and was increased in the Kölliker-Fuse nucleus (KF). In the mesencephalic reticular formation, increased activity was observed for non-modulated units and to a larger extent for units driven by the bulbopontine respiratory system.