Multiple modes of operation of cardiac autonomic control: development of the ideas from Cannon and Brooks to the present.

Since Cannon's time much emphasis has been placed on reciprocal control of the organ function by the autonomic nerves while other modes of control has been neglected. In our laboratory, prompted by Dr. Brooks, we initiated the study of the autonomic control of the heart by recording simultaneously the activity of cardiac sympathetic and parasympathetic nerves under a variety of conditions in chloralose anesthetized dogs. We have demonstrated that the central nervous system exercises reciprocal as well as non-reciprocal pattern of control over the two arms of the autonomic outflows under different physiological and behavioral conditions, and that each mode of control has an important functional significance.