THE NEURONAL MECHANISMS OF RESPIRATORY RHYTHM GENERATION

New, improved in vivo and in vitro approaches have led to a better und erstanding of the mechanisms that generate respiratory rhythm, which d epends on a complex interaction between network and intrinsic membrane properties. The pre-Botzinger complex in the ventrolateral medulla is particularly important for respiratory rhythm generation. This comple x can be studied in isolation, and it contains all the known types of respiratory neurons that are now amenable to detailed cellular and mol ecular analyses.