Publications by authors named "Pierina A Valarezo"
Article Synopsis
- - Hypoxia induces various breathing behaviors, notably gasping, which helps improve blood flow and coordination between heart and lungs by altering breathing patterns and pressures in the body.
- - The study tested if gasps during hypoxia are amplified by a specific circuit in the brain responsible for breathing and if this signal spreads to other areas involved in respiratory control.
- - Results showed that changes in neuron activity and connectivity in brainstem circuits support the idea that these areas work together to enhance breathing efforts during hypoxia, leading to gasping as a lifesaving reflex.
Hypoxia can trigger a sequence of breathing-related behaviors, from tachypnea to apneusis to apnea and gasping, an autoresuscitative behavior that, via large tidal volumes and altered intrathoracic pressure, can enhance coronary perfusion, carotid blood flow, and sympathetic activity, and thereby coordinate cardiac and respiratory functions. We tested the hypothesis that hypoxia-evoked gasps are amplified through a disinhibitory microcircuit within the inspiratory neuron chain and a distributed efference copy mechanism that generates coordinated gasp-like discharges concurrently in other circuits of the raphe-pontomedullary respiratory network. Data were obtained from 6 decerebrate, vagotomized, neuromuscularly-blocked, and artificially ventilated adult cats.
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