title: Interactions between respiratory, cardiac and stepping rhythms in decerebrated cats: functional hierarchical structures of biological oscillators.
abstract: Interactions are described of central origin between respiratory, cardiac and stepping rhythms during fictive locomotion in paralyzed, vagotomized, and decerebrated cats. Fictive locomotion was induced by tonic electrical stimulation of the mesencephalic locomotor region (MLR). The coherence between heart beat fluctuation, the efferent discharges of the phrenic, and the lateral gastrocnemius nerves was used to evaluate the strength of the coupling between those three rhythms. The heart beat rhythm was modulated by the centrally generated respiratory and stepping rhythms. The central respiratory rhythm was modulated by the centrally generated stepping rhythm. Based on the present findings, we have proposed a new model concerning the functional hierarchical structures of the three biological oscillators.
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical and Information Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Yamagata University, Japan.
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kawahara
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yamauchi
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Niizeki
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Yoshioka
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002415:Cats; D002940:Circadian Rhythm / Q000502:physiology; D003655:Decerebrate State / Q000503:physiopathology*; D004558:Electric Stimulation; D004562:Electrocardiography; D004569:Electroencephalography; D006339:Heart Rate / Q000502:physiology*; D008124:Locomotion / Q000502:physiology*; D009043:Motor Activity / Q000502:physiology; D010791:Phrenic Nerve / Q000502:physiology; D012119:Respiration / Q000502:physiology*