Unraveling the mechanism for respiratory rhythm generation

Breathing is generated by a neuronal network located within the caudal brai nstem. One area of particular significance for respiratory rhythm generatio n is the pre-Botzinger (preBotC) complex in the ventrolateral medulla. An i mportant step towards understanding the cellular and network basis by which neurons within this region generate the respiratory rhythm was made in a r ecent study by Koshiya and Smith.((1)) Using simultaneous image analysis an d electrophysiological techniques these authors identified a discrete popul ation of synaptically-coupled pacemaker neurons within the preBotC. They po stulated that these neurons constitute the minimal essential network compon ent (kernel) for generating the respiratory rhythm. (C) 2000 John Wiley & S ons, Inc.