Diencephalic regulation of respiration and arterial pressure during actual and fictive locomotion in cat.

The purpose of this study was to examine by experimentation the hypothesis that the respiratory and circulatory responses during exercise are attributable to command signals that emanate from the suprapontine brain. We studied the relations between locomotion (exercise) and phrenic nerve activity and arterial pressure in cats that walked or ran on a treadmill and in animals during fictive locomotion, i.e., locomotor activity in motor nerves to legs. Anesthetized cats with intact brains and unanesthetized decorticated cats were used. All preparations exhibited spontaneous actual and fictive locomotion. Electrical stimulation or microinjection of picrotoxin, a GABA antagonist, of the subthalamic locomotor areas always caused locomotion to develop. Phrenic nerve activity and arterial pressure increased in proportion to the level of locomotor activity despite control or ablation of feedback signals from chemoreceptors and vagal receptors. Similar relations were measured during fictive locomotion despite the absence of muscular contraction and limb movement and the lack of change in metabolic rate. These findings provide experimental support for the central command hypothesis for the genesis of the respiratory hyperpnea and increased cardiovascular function that occur during exercise. We believe that the command signals emanate from the subthalamic locomotor area of the diencephalon.