An ionic current model for respiratory neurons in the rat vNTS and guinea pig nucleus ambiguus

Abstract

Although other Hodgkin-Huxley type models have been developed for respiratory neurons, they have not been applied to quantitatively represent electrophysiological data. We present a neuron model that predicts the behavior of respiratory neurons both in the rat ventral nucleus tractus solitarius (vNTS) and the guinea pig nucleus ambiguous (NA). Within these regions neurons are classified according to specific patterns of behavior. Our simulations point to the mechanisms responsible for spike frequency adaptation (SFA), delayed excitation (DE), and postinhibitory rebound (PIR).