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. 2015 Feb 11;9:2. doi: 10.3389/fncir.2015.00002

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Copyright © 2015 Fields and Mitchell.

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution and reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

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Representation of brainstem and spinal cord regions critical for respiratory motor control. Respiratory rhythm generation requires a small region of the medulla known as the pre-Bötzinger complex (PBöC). The central rhythm is transmitted to brainstem respiratory pre-motor neurons of the ventral respiratory group (VRG). VRG pre-motor neurons subsequently relay respiratory drive projections to different respiratory motor neuron pools, including phrenic motor neurons (PMN). Sensory input to the respiratory system during episodic hypoxia is provided by the carotid body (CB) chemoreceptors in the neck, which project via chemoafferent neurons to the medullary nucleus of the solitary tract (not shown). These second order sensory neurons subsequently project (directly or indirectly) to multiple structures of importance in ventilatory control, including the PBöC, VRG and serotonergic neurons in the medullary raphe (raphe). Raphe serotonergic neurons play a key role in phrenic long-term facilitation (pLTF) following acute intermittent hypoxia (AIH) and, presumably, in metaplasticity of pLTF.