title: Calcium imaging of neuronal activity in the most rostral parafacial respiratory group of the newborn rat.
abstract: The parafacial respiratory group (pFRG) is thought to be involved in respiratory rhythm generation in neonates. This subgroup expresses the transcription factor, Phox2b, and contains intrinsically CO(2) sensitive neurons. Calcium imaging has been widely used for analysis of neuronal activity at the cellular and network level. In the present study, we applied calcium imaging to analyze neuronal activity of the most-rostral pFRG in an in vitro brainstem-spinal cord preparation from neonatal rats. We detected strong pre-inspiratory neuron activity in the most rostral pFRG, suggesting that significant numbers of pre-inspiratory neurons are localized in the ventrolateral medulla near the rostral end of the medulla. We show that usage of calcium imaging would be very useful for analysis of neuronal activity over different time scales, and discuss the advantages and disadvantages of this method.
authors: Department of Physiology, Showa University School of Medicine, Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo, Japan. oni@med.showa-u.ac.jp
authors: Hiroshi
authors: H
authors: Onimaru
authors: Mathias
authors: M
authors: Dutschmann
mesh_terms: D000814:Aniline Compounds; D000818:Animals; D002118:Calcium / Q000378:metabolism*; D002245:Carbon Dioxide / Q000008:administration & dosage; D005456:Fluorescent Dyes; D008526:Medulla Oblongata / Q000502:physiology; D009474:Neurons / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology*; D011188:Potassium / Q000494:pharmacology; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D012125:Respiratory Center / Q000502:physiology*; D015656:Respiratory Mechanics / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology*; D013779:Tetrodotoxin / Q000494:pharmacology; D056969:Voltage-Sensitive Dye Imaging; D014966:Xanthenes
chemical_list: D000814:Aniline Compounds; D005456:Fluorescent Dyes; D014966:Xanthenes; C561295:fluo-8 AM; D002245:Carbon Dioxide; D013779:Tetrodotoxin; D011188:Potassium; D002118:Calcium