The location of neurons generating the rhythm of breathing in mammals is unknown. By microsection of the neonatal rat brainstem in vitro, a limited region of the ventral medulla (the pre-Bötzinger Complex) that contains neurons essential for rhythmogenesis was identified. Rhythm generation was eliminated by removal of only this region. Medullary slices containing the pre-Bötzinger Complex generated respiratory-related oscillations similar to those generated by the whole brainstem in vitro, and neurons with voltage-dependent pacemaker-like properties were identified in this region. Thus, the respiratory rhythm in the mammalian neonatal nervous system may result from a population of conditional bursting pacemaker neurons in the pre-Bötzinger Complex.

Smith JC, Abdala AP, Koizumi H, Rybak IA, Paton JF. Spatial and functional architecture of the mammalian brain stem respiratory network: a hierarchy of three oscillatory mechanisms. J Neurophysiol 98: 3370 -3387, 2007. First published October 3, 2007; doi:10.1152/jn.00985.2007. Mammalian central pattern generators (CPGs) producing rhythmic movements exhibit extremely robust and flexible behavior. Network architectures that enable these features are not well understood. Here we studied organization of the brain stem respiratory CPG. By sequential rostral to caudal transections through the pontine-medullary respiratory network within an in situ perfused rat brain stem-spinal cord preparation, we showed that network dynamics reorganized and new rhythmogenic mechanisms emerged. The normal three-phase respiratory rhythm transformed to a two-phase and then to a one-phase rhythm as the network was reduced. Expression of the three-phase rhythm required the presence of the pons, generation of the two-phase rhythm depended on the integrity of Bötzinger and pre-Bötzinger complexes and interactions between them, and the one-phase rhythm was generated within the pre-Bötzinger complex. Transformation from the three-phase to a two-phase pattern also occurred in intact preparations when chloridemediated synaptic inhibition was reduced. In contrast to the threephase and two-phase rhythms, the one-phase rhythm was abolished by blockade of persistent sodium current (I NaP ). A model of the respiratory network was developed to reproduce and explain these observations. The model incorporated interacting populations of respiratory neurons within spatially organized brain stem compartments. Our simulations reproduced the respiratory patterns recorded from intact and sequentially reduced preparations. Our results suggest that the three-phase and two-phase rhythms involve inhibitory network interactions, whereas the one-phase rhythm depends on I NaP . We conclude that the respiratory network has rhythmogenic capabilities at multiple levels of network organization, allowing expression of motor patterns specific for various physiological and pathophysiological respiratory behaviors. I N T R O D U C T I O NThe structural and functional organizations of various central pattern generators (CPGs) producing rhythmic movements have been studied for decades in an attempt to understand the neural basis of motor behavior. In contrast to CPGs in several invertebrates and lower vertebrates (Grillner 2006;Marder and Calabrese 1996;Selverston and Ayers 2006), the spatial and functional architectures of CPG circuits in the mammalian CNS, such as those generating breathing movements, have not been well defined. Breathing in mammals is a dynamically mutable motor behavior that not only performs a vital homeostatic function but is also integrated with many other physiological functions including suckling, swallowing, sniffing, chewing, and vocalization. With such functional diversity, respiratory CPG circuits must have a robust, yet highly flexible organ...

A network of oscillatory bursting neurons with excitatory coupling is hypothesized to define the primary kernel for respiratory rhythm generation in the pre-Bötzinger complex (pre-BötC) in mammals. Two minimal models of these neurons are proposed. In model 1, bursting arises via fast activation and slow inactivation of a persistent Na+ current INaP-h. In model 2, bursting arises via a fast-activating persistent Na+ current INaP and slow activation of a K+ current IKS. In both models, action potentials are generated via fast Na+ and K+ currents. The two models have few differences in parameters to facilitate a rigorous comparison of the two different burst-generating mechanisms. Both models are consistent with many of the dynamic features of electrophysiological recordings from pre-BötC oscillatory bursting neurons in vitro, including voltage-dependent activity modes (silence, bursting, and beating), a voltage-dependent burst frequency that can vary from 0.05 to >1 Hz, and a decaying spike frequency during bursting. These results are robust and persist across a wide range of parameter values for both models. However, the dynamics of model 1 are more consistent with experimental data in that the burst duration decreases as the baseline membrane potential is depolarized and the model has a relatively flat membrane potential trajectory during the interburst interval. We propose several experimental tests to demonstrate the validity of either model and to differentiate between the two mechanisms.

Breathing movements in mammals arise from a rhythmic pattern of neural activity, thought to originate in the pre-Bötzinger complex in the lower brainstem. The mechanisms generating the neural rhythm in this region are unknown. The central question is whether the rhythm is generated by a network of bursting pacemaker neurons coupled by excitatory synapses that synchronize pacemaker activity. Here we visualized the activity of inspiratory pacemaker neurons at single-cell and population levels with calcium-sensitive dye. We developed methods to label these neurons retrogradely with the dye in neonatal rodent brainstem slices that retain the rhythmically active respiratory network. We simultaneously used infrared structural imaging to allow patch-clamp recording from the identified neurons. After we pharmacologically blocked glutamatergic synaptic transmission, a subpopulation of inspiratory neurons continued to burst rhythmically but asynchronously. The intrinsic bursting frequency of these pacemaker neurons depended on the baseline membrane potential, providing a cellular mechanism for respiratory frequency control. These results provide evidence that the neuronal kernel for rhythm generation consists of a network of synaptically-coupled pacemaker neurons.