Coordination of swallow and breathing: in vivo and computational model simulations (1178.12)

Abstract

Coordination of swallow and breathing is vital for airway protection. However, the central mechanisms for the coordination of these behaviors are not known. We speculated that coupled oscillators could be used to explain swallow‐breathing interactions. In vivo recordings in anesthetized cats (n=6) demonstrate that swallow exhibits respiratory phase preference with 83% during expiration (E), 7% during inspiration (I), and 10% phase transition. A swallow oscillator circuit with two, mutually inhibitory, neuron populations, (A & B) was added to the extant medullary breathing network. The swallow A group excites downstream motoneurons and the swallow B group controls inter‐swallow duration. To loosely couple the oscillators excitatory connections were added: 1) I populations to swallow B, controlling swallow occurrence during E phase; 2) E‐augmenting population to swallow B, increasing the probability of swallow occurrence near the end of E. Additionally, to reduce expiratory activity during swallow, an excitatory connection was added between the swallow A population and an E decrementing population, which in turn suppressed E‐Aug bulbospinal activity. Simulations exhibited repetitive breathing, and swallow occurred during the appropriate breathing phase. We conclude significant features of the swallow‐breathing relationship can be modeled with loosely coupled oscillators. NIH HL89104, HL103415, HL89071, HL109025, HL 111215(K99/R00)Grant Funding Source: NIH HL89104, HL103415, HL89071, HL109025, HL 111215 (K99/R00)