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

摘要

Although other Hodgkin-Huxley type models have been developed for respiratory neurons [1], they have not been applied to quantitatively represent electrophysiological data. We present a neuron model that predicts the behavior of respiratoryneurons both in the rat ventral nucleus tractus solitarius (vNTS) and the guinea pig nucleus ambiguus (NA). Within these regions neurons are classified according to specific patterns of behavior. Our simulations point to the mechanisms responsible forspike frequency adaptation (SFA), delayed excitation (DE), and postinhibitory rebound (PIR).