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Central Integration of Chemoreceptor Afferent Activity

  • Chapter
Arterial Chemoreceptors

Part of the book series: Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology ((AEMB,volume 360))

Abstract

There is an abundance of literature concerning the possible transduction mechanisms and neurotransmitters that act within the carotid body, the activity of carotid chemoreceptor afferents to various stimulants, and the reflex effects produced by altering chemoreceptor afferent discharge. However, relatively little information is available regarding the mechanisms which intervene between the activity in the afferent nerve fibres and the alterations evoked in motor outflow. In this short review I will summarise what is known regarding the sites of termination of arterial chemoreceptor afferents and the integration of these afferents with other afferent inputs, respiration, and higher centres at the second and higher order neurones. In addition, these will be compared to the pathways underlying the responses evoked by a second set of chemoreceptor afferents, those arising from the pulmonary chemoreceptor afferents variously termed “J-receptors”, “pulmonary C-fibre afferents” or “pulmonary chemoreceptor afferents”. When activated these afferents evoke a marked vagal bradycardia, a depressor response and either rapid shallow breathing or apnoea. These afferents are of interest since the bradycardia they evoke is unaffected by respiratory gating (Daly & Kirkman, 1989; Daly, 1991) whereas the bradycardia evoked by arterial chemoreceptor or baroreceptor afferents is powerfully gated both by the central respiratory cycle and lung inflation (Daly, 1986; Davidson et al., 1976). This may suggest that the central mechanisms underlying the two chemoreceptor reflexes are fundamentally different. Hence, it is worth comparing the pathways responsible for both reflexes. The effects of these two types of afferent on the relevant motor neuronal pools has been discussed elsewhere in this volume (Jones et al., 1994) and will not be discussed in detail here.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physiology, Royal Free Hospital School of Medicine, Rowland Hill Street, London, NW3 2PF, UK

    David Jordan

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  1. David Jordan
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland

    Ronan G. O’Regan  & Philip Nolan  & 

  2. University of Edinburgh Medical School, Edinburgh, Scotland

    Daniel S. McQueen

  3. University of Oxford, Oxford, UK

    David J. Paterson

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© 1994 Springer Science+Business Media New York

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Jordan, D. (1994). Central Integration of Chemoreceptor Afferent Activity. In: O’Regan, R.G., Nolan, P., McQueen, D.S., Paterson, D.J. (eds) Arterial Chemoreceptors. Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology, vol 360. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-2572-1_8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-2572-1_8

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4613-6099-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4615-2572-1

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