Plasticity of cardiorespiratory neural processing: classification and computational functions

Neural plasticity, or malleability of neuronal structure and function, is a n important attribute of the mammalian forebrain and is generally thought t o be a kernel of biological intelligence. In this review, we examine some r eported manifestations of neural plasticity in the cardiorespiratory system and classify them into four functional categories integral; differential; memory; and statistical-type plasticity. At the cellular and systems level the myriad forms of cardiorespiratory plasticity display emergent and self- organization properties, use- and disuse-dependent and pairing-specific pro perties, short-term and long-term potentiation or depression, as well as re dundancy in series or parallel structures, convergent pathways or backup an d fail-safe surrogate pathways. At the behavioral level, the cardiorespirat ory system demonstrates the capability of associative and nonassociative le arning, classical and operant conditioning as well as short-term and long-t erm memory. The remarkable similarity and consistency of the various types of plasticity exhibited at all levels of organization suggest that neural p lasticity is integral to cardiorespiratory control and may subserve importa nt physiological functions. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reser ved.