Регуляция дыхания при электрической стимуляции поясничного отдела спинного мозга у человека

Abstract

The current research is a continuation of our recent study devoted to the regulation mechanisms of the human respiratory system reaction to transcutaneous electrical stimulation of the spinal cord (tSCS), which causes a locomotor response. With healthy volunteers serving as the subjects in our experiment, we compared the respiratory system reactions to tSCS in the area of T12-L1 vertebrae, which was performed during the voluntary and passive leg movements with equal amplitude and speed parameters, with the reaction under the conditions of external suppression of the locomotor response caused by tSCS, which made it possible to modulate the contribution of the neurogenic mechanism of respiration regulation to the ventilatory reaction. A rehabilitation biomechanical simulator was used for this investigation. Our experiments showed that tSCS with an intensity that induced muscle response under the conditions of external restraint of leg movements causes a decrease in the depth of breathing by 0.10 ± 0.03 l due to an insignificant, but synchronous decrease in the duration and speed of both inspiration and exhalation. Stimulation during voluntary leg movement was accompanied by a significant increase in the minute volume of the ventilation of the lungs by 3.23 ± 1.06 l/min. due to an increase in the depth of breathing by 0.10 ± 0.03 l. The respiratory reaction to tSCS during passive leg movement was weak, but there was a tendency towards an increase in the frequency and a decrease in the depth of breathing with a marked increase in oxygen consumption by 33.10 ± 13.16 ml/min. In case of the passive leg movement, the effects of tSCS and the mechanisms of respiration regulation during muscular activity were almost coherent. The revealed differences in respiratory reactions to tSCS are most likely associated with the imposition of multidirectional effects of stimulation of the lumbar areas of the spinal cord, on the one hand, and a complex of neurogenic and humoral-reflex mechanisms of breathing regulation during physical work, on the other.