Tonic firing of pontine neurons provides excitatory input to the vasomotor centre in the ventrolateral medulla. To increase our understanding of the actions of propofol on CNS neurons controlling the cardiovascular system, we evaluated the effects of propofol on this tonic firing of pontine neurons. The actions of propofol (doses 1-4, respectively: 24 +/- 2, 40 +/- 4, 65 +/- 3 and 104 +/- 3 mg....