Patterns of inspiratory phase-dependent activity in the in vitro respiratory network.
Mechanistic descriptions of rhythmogenic neural networks have often relied on ball-and-stick diagrams, which define interactions between functional classes of cells assumed to be reasonably homogenous. Application of this formalism to networks underlying respiratory rhythm generation in mammals has produced increasingly intricate models that have generated significant insight, but the underlying assumption that individual cells within these network fall into distinct functional classes has not been rigorously tested. In the present study we used multiunit extracellular recording in the in vitro pre-Bötzinger complex to identify and characterize the rhythmic activity of 951 cells. Inspiratory phase-dependent activity was estimated for all cells, and the data set as a whole was analyzed with principal component analysis, nonlinear dimensionality reduction, and hierarchical clustering techniques. None of these techniques revealed categorically distinct functional cell classes, indicating instead that the behavior of these cells within the network falls along several continua of spiking behavior.
Center for Integrative Brain Research, Seattle Children's Research Institute, Seattle, WA 98101, USA. mscarroll@luriechildrens.org
Michael S
MS
Carroll
Jean-Charles
JC
Viemari
Jan-Marino
JM
Ramirez
D000200:Action Potentials; D000818:Animals; D001933:Brain Stem / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology*; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D066298:In Vitro Techniques; D001239:Inhalation / Q000502:physiology*; D051379:Mice; D009415:Nerve Net / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology*; D009474:Neurons / Q000145:classification / Q000502:physiology*; D012137:Respiratory System / Q000294:innervation