Vagal feedback is essential for breathing in unanesthetized ground squirrels.

The roles of vagal afferent feedback in terminating inspiration and modulating breathing pattern and ventilatory responses to hypoxia and hypercapnia were assessed in the golden-mantled ground squirrel, Spermophilus lateralis, during wakefulness and urethane anesthesia. Hypoxia increased ventilation primarily through increases in breathing frequency (f(R)) while hypercapnia increased ventilation primarily through increases in tidal volume (V(T)) in both anesthetized and unanesthetized animals. Vagotomy resulted in an increase in tidal volume, a decrease in breathing frequency and ventilation, and depressed ventilatory responses to both hypoxia and hypercapnia in anesthetized animals. In unanesthetized animals vagotomy produced a transient 'gasp-like' breathing pattern that rapidly progressed to a non-obstructive central apnea. These data indicate that vagal feedback shapes ventilation on a breath-by-breath basis during anesthesia and is essential for ventilation in unanesthetized animals. The mechanisms that transform the influences of vagal input on breathing between anesthetized and unanesthetized states remain unclear. Changes in breathing pattern induced by the removal of vagal feedback compromise chemoreflexes.