SPORADIC APNEA - PARADOXICAL TRANSFORMATION TO EUPNEA BY PERTURBATIONS THAT INHIBIT INSPIRATION

We speculate that sporadic apneas may be initiated and terminated by s tochastic neural perturbations arising within or impinging upon the re spiratory oscillator. A curious situation can then arise in which tiny perturbations that inhibit inspiration, paradoxically stimulate breat hing. The plausibility of the hypothesis is supported by numerical ana lysis of a noisy attractor-cycle oscillator, and in studies of a prete rm sleeping infant with sporadic apnea; low-level vibratory stimulatio n transformed the irregular apneic rhythm to eupnea.