The afferent activity of the superior laryngeal nerve, and respiratory reflexes specifically responding to intralaryngeal pressure changes in anesthetized Shiba goats.

This study was aimed at characterizing the superior laryngeal nerve (SLN) afferent activities under four different respiratory conditions, i.e., tracheostomy breathing (TB), upper airway breathing (UAB), tracheal occlusion (TO) and upper airway occlusion (UAO), and investigating respiratory changes in response to transmural pressures applied to the larynx in anesthetized Shiba goats. The activity recorded from the whole SLN increased at both inspiration and expiration during TB, UAB and TO, while an expiratory augmentation accompanied by an inspiratory inhibition was found during UAO. Based on recordings from 109 thin filament-preparations, 47 units were identified as 'drive' receptors, 31 as 'pressure' receptors (22 'positive' and 9 'negative' pressure receptors), and the rest 31 as 'non-modulated type' of receptors. The posterior cricoarytenoid (PCA) muscle activity showed a clear inspiratory modulation during UAB and was significantly enhanced by negative pressure applied to the isolated upper airway, where such an augmented activity was abolished by bilateral section of the SLN. No significant changes were found in the respiratory cycle during application of negative pressures to the larynx. The respiratory modulation of the SLN in Shiba goats was essentially identical to that reported for rabbits, rats and guinea pigs, but not in dogs. The reflex response of the upper airway muscles to the laryngeal pressure changes in Shiba goats were found to be less noticeable than in rabbits and dogs.