The responses of 58 dorsal medullary nucleus units to a set of spectrally and temporally structured stimuli were investigated. Responses to tonepips and noise indicated monomodal spectral sensitivities, with diverse response patterns. Phase-locking was strong for frequencies from 0.1 to 0.2 kHz, and in one unit extended up to 0.6 kHz. To clicks, amplitude modulated tonebursts and natural and ar...

The primary hypothesis of this study was that the cough motor pattern is produced, at least in part, by the medullary respiratory neuronal network in response to inputs from "cough" and pulmonary stretch receptor relay neurons in the nucleus tractus solitarii. Computer simulations of a distributed network model with proposed connections from the nucleus tractus solitarii to ventrolateral medull...

The orbicularis oculi reflex was studied in nine cases with lateral medullary lesions. Diagnosis of the Wallenberg syndrome was made clinically in seven cases and at necropsy in another. The clinical features of one other case were closely allied to but not typical of this syndrome. An afferent delay of the late reflex on the side of the lesion in the presence of a normal early reflex was seen ...

The electric organs of Astroscopus are modified from extraocular muscles and innervated by the enlarged oculomotor nuclei. The electromotor neuron somata are contacted by fine processes with which they form gap junctions. Presynaptic vesicles and active zones are also present, although physiological data give no indication of chemically mediated transmission. Antidromic stimulation produces lon...

Previous studies demonstrated that strain H129 of herpes simplex virus-1 undergoes anterograde transneuronal transport in mice and primates after peripheral or central injection. In this study, H129 was used in rats to identify CNS regions that receive relayed viscero-sensory inputs from the stomach wall. We also examined whether transneuronal viral transport in this model is exclusively antero...

Acute exposure of cells in culture to high NaCl damages DNA and impairs its repair. However, after several hours of cell cycle arrest, cells multiply in the hypertonic medium. Here, we show that, although adapted cells proliferate rapidly and do not become apoptotic, they nevertheless contain numerous DNA breaks, which do not elicit a DNA damage response. Thus, in adapted cells, Mre11 exonuclea...

In order to better understand the descending voluntary vocal control pathway, the efferent subcortical projections of the laryngeal motorcortex were studied in the rhesus monkey (Macaca mulatta). For this purpose, the left motorcortex was exposed in three animals under narcosis. By electrical brain stimulation, sites were identified yielding vocal fold adduction. Effective sites were injected w...

Birdsong, like speech, involves coordinated vocal and respiratory activity achieved under telencephalic control. The avian vocal organ, or syrinx, is innervated by motor neurons (MNs) in the tracheosyringeal part of the hypoglossal nucleus (XIIts) that receive their synaptic input from medullary respiratory areas and telencephalic song control areas. Despite the importance of XIIts MNs to learn...

Altered pain appreciation and autonomic function are hallmarks of Cardiac syndrome X, Irritable bowel syndrome and Reflex sympathetic dystrophy. Both pain appreciation and autonomic function are controlled by the lateral medulla. This hypothesis proposes that lateral medullary ischaemia at a microvascular level is responsible for these syndromes and could also be linked to other conditions wher...

Electrical stimulation studies have implicated the medial medulla in the inhibition of muscle tone. In the present report we present evidence for suppression of muscle tone by chemical activation of the medial medulla. We find 2 distinct zones within the classically defined medial medullary inhibitory area. A rostral region corresponding to the nucleus magnocellularis (NMC) is sensitive to glut...