Discharge patterns of phrenic motoneurons during fictive coughing and vomiting in decerebrate cats.

In decerebrate, paralyzed, and ventilated cats, we recorded the activity of 100 spontaneously active phrenic motor axons during the increased phrenic discharges characteristic of fictive vomiting (FV) and coughing (FC). During control respiratory cycles, approximately one-half the neurons were recruited in the first decile of inspiration; recruitment continued throughout inspiration. During FV, the duration of phrenic discharge was halved; 20 of 26 motoneurons studied were recruited in the first decile of the burst. During FC, recruitment times did not change compared with control, although the duration of the phrenic burst doubled. Discharge frequencies increased and recruitment order of phrenic motoneurons was virtually unaffected during FC and FV. Limited recruitment of previously inactive neurons in the filaments from which we recorded was found during FV and FC. During FV, 1 previously inactive motoneuron was recruited in 16 filaments containing 25 spontaneously active motor axons. During FC, 3 new motoneurons were recruited in addition to the 64 already active in 35 filaments. Recruitment during FV and FC was absent even when recording from filaments known, on the basis of antidromic activation, to contain inactive motor axons. During FV, 10 of 26 motoneurons began their discharges with doublets (interspike interval < 10 ms); doublets occurred in only 4 of 67 motoneurons during FC. Already active phrenic motoneurons contributed to the intense phrenic activity associated with both respiratory (coughing) and nonrespiratory (vomiting) behavior by increases in discharge frequency, earlier recruitment, and doublets; the contribution of previously quiescent motoneurons remains uncertain.