An alternative introduction to reading and evaluating the primary literature for beginning graduate students.

Students are challenged in transitioning from acquiring knowledge and understanding through reading textbooks to their learning to select, read, evaluate, and synthesize the primary literature. A customary approach to teaching this transition to beginning graduate students is for a faculty member to assign "readings" from the recent literature that promise to become key publications; such assignments generally underscore recent, novel scientific content. We advocate here an alternative approach for coaching students very early in their training: first, to read, analyze, and discuss a paper that highlights critically important features of effective and valid experimental design; and, second, to study a paper that can be shown historically to have fundamentally changed the way in which physiological function is understood.

Extended longitudinal analysis of arterial pressure and heart rate control in unanesthetized rats with type 1 diabetes.

We recorded arterial pressure (BP) and heart rate (HR) in type-1 diabetic rats vs. controls for >6 months. Diabetic rats (DIAB) were maintained on insulin from the day glucose >250 mg/dl ("Day 0").

Atomoxetine changes rat's HR response to stress from tachycardia to bradycardia via alterations in autonomic function.

Atomoxetine is a central norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor used to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. We tested the effects of atomoxetine upon the heart rate (HR) and mean arterial blood pressure (mBP) response to aversive conditioning. In Protocol 1 the mBP and HR responses to a stress (15s tone followed by shock) were tested in 8 Sprague-Dawley rats given saline pretreatment for 3 days; the rats' responses were then tested for 3 additional days following atomoxetine (1mg/kg, sc).

Blood pressure power within frequency range approximately 0.4 Hz in rat conforms to self-similar scaling following spinal cord transection.

This study quantified the effect of interrupting the descending input to the sympathetic preganglionic neurons on the dynamic behavior of arterial blood pressure (BP) in the unanesthetized rat. BP was recorded for approximately 4-h intervals in six rats in the neurally intact state and in the same animals after complete spinal cord transection (SCT) between T(4) and T(5). In the intact state, power within the frequency range of 0.

Heart rate-arterial blood pressure relationship in conscious rat before vs. after spinal cord transection.

This experiment quantified the initial disruption and subsequent adaptation of the blood pressure (BP)-heart rate (HR) relationship after spinal cord transection (SCT). BP and HR were recorded for 4 h via an implanted catheter in neurally intact, unanesthetized rats. The animals were then anesthetized, and their spinal cords were severed at T(1)-T(2) (n = 5) or T(4)-T(5) (n = 6) or sham lesioned (n = 4).