Responses to circulatory pressures, and conduction velocity, of pulmocutaneous baroreceptors in Bufo marinus.

1. Baroreceptor activity was recorded within the recurrent laryngeal branch of the toad vagus in forty-four preparations. The receptive fields of the receptors were located in the pulmocutaneous artery (p.c.a.), generally within 5 mm of its separation from the truncus. However, the most easily recorded afferents in this nerve were mechanoreceptors which responded to punctate stimulation of the lip of the glottis. 2. The conduction velocities of p.c.a. baroreceptor and mechanoreceptive glottal afferents recorded in the recurrent laryngeal nerve ranged from 0.3-0.7 (0.5 +/- 0.1) m s-1 and 2.2-14.0 (6.8 +/- 0.8) m s-1 respectively, which suggests that baroreceptor afferent fibres are non-myelinated and that glottal afferent fibres are myelinated. 3. The p.c.a. baroreceptor discharge was largely confined to a period of systole in which systemic and p.c.a. arterial pressure profiles were identical. The maximum discharge frequency, number of spikes per cycle, and the duration of discharge increased, and the discharge latency decreased, as p.c.a. pressures were elevated. The latency of the discharge was pronounced at low p.c.a. pressures, and could be partially accounted for by the conduction time of the baroreceptor afferents to the electrodes (up to 100 ms). 4. Carotid and aortic arterial baroreceptor and pharyngeal afferents were recorded in two pharyngeal branches of the vagus nerve which were closely associated with the carotid and aortic arterial arches. 5. It is suggested that baroreceptor populations with their receptive fields in the third- (carotid) and sixth- (p.c.a. or pulmonary) arch arteries should be considered homologous in anurans and mammals, but that those of the fourth- (aorta) arch artery should not, since the vagal branches in which their afferents are carried do not appear to be equivalent in anurans and mammals.