Pulmonary stretch receptor spike time precision increases with lung inflation amplitude and airway smooth muscle tension.

Slowly adapting pulmonary stretch receptors (SARs) respond to different lung inflation volumes with distinct spike counts and patterns, conveying information regarding the rate and depth of breathing to the cardiovascular and respiratory control systems. Previous studies demonstrated that SARs respond to repetitions of the same lung inflation faithfully, suggesting the possibility of modeling an SAR's discrete response pattern to a stimulus using a statistically based method. Urethane-anesthetized rabbit SAR spike trains were recorded in response to repeated 9-, 12-, and 15-ml lung inflations, and used to construct model spike trains using K-means clustering.

Slowly adapting pulmonary stretch receptor spike patterns carry lung distension information.

Slowly adapting pulmonary stretch receptors (SARs) provide the respiratory and cardiovascular control systems with information regarding the rate and depth of breathing. Previous information theoretical analysis demonstrated that SAR spike count provides a reliable representation of lung distension. This study examines whether SAR spike patterns may also provide information about lung distension.