Afferent impulses in the vagus and their effect on respiration
Afferent impulses in the vagus and their effect on respiration
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DOI:
10.1113/jphysiol.1933.sp003053
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发表时间:
1933-10-01
影响因子:
5.5
通讯作者:
Adrian, ED
中科院分区:
文献类型:
--
作者:
Adrian, ED
The action of the vagus in respiration has been studied in the cat by recording the impulses in single afferent fibers. Some of the discharges come from end organs which are not affected by lung movement, e.g., from end organs in relation to the heart and to the trachea. Of the end organs which respond to lung movement and give measurable action currents, the only kind in action normally is that stimulated by expansion of the lung. These end organs behave like the muscle spindles and stretch receptors in other parts of the body. They become very slowly adapted to the stimulus. In normal breathing the max. frequency of the discharge in single fibers varies from 50-100 per sec., though rates as high as 300 per sec. are produced by extreme inflation. With moderate inflations the frequency varies directly with the lung volume. CO2 in amts. higher than 10% produces a very slight diminution in the discharge to test inflation, but the effect is not outside the range of error. Ventilation with N and failure of the circulation have no immediate effect. After 10-20 min. the discharge to a constant stimulus declines more rapidly, but there may still be some response an hr. after the heart has stopped beating. Chloroform vapor in amts. of 2.5% or less has no obvious effect on the response of the end organs. Higher proportions produce a rapid failure, but there is a rapid recovery as soon as the lungs are inflated with air. Suction of air from the lungs stimulates a fresh set of end organs. These may come into action in pathological conditions, but they are not stimulated by the normal movement of the lung and there is no evidence of their activity in moderate dyspnea. In the rabbit they are stimulated at expiration when the extra-thoracic pressure is increased. The effect of the vagus on respiration must be due mainly to the impulse from the stretch receptors in the lung. These have an inhibitory effect on the respiratory center, but the inhibition occurs mainly during the phase of activity. Periodic inhibitions may therefore quicken the rate of breathing, as Head suggested, by cutting short the motor discharge and so hastening recovery. The expiratory muscles (triangularis stemi and internal intercostals) contract regularly in cats and rabbits anesthetized with chloralose. They are sometimes in action in decerebrate cats but never in cats under deep chloroform anesthesia. In chloralosed animals the expiratory muscles remain in action after section of both vagi. The afferent control of the respiratory movements is discussed.