Subgroups of rostral ventrolateral medullary and caudal medullary raphe neurons based on patterns of relationship to sympathetic nerve discharge and axonal projections.

This study was designed to answer three questions concerning rostral ventrolateral medullary (RVLM) and caudal medullary raphe (CMR) neurons with activity correlate to sympathetic nerve discharge (SND). 1) What are the proportions of RVLM and CMR neurons that have activity correlated to both the cardiac-related and 10-Hz rhythms in SND, to only the 10-Hz rhythm, and to only the cardiac-related rhythm? 2) Which of these cell types project to the spinal cord? 3) Do the outputs of the cardiac-related and 10-Hz rhythm generators converge at the level of bulbospinal neurons or their antecedent interneurons? To address these issues we recorded from 44 RVLM and 48 CMR neurons with sympathetic nerve-related activity in urethan-anesthetized cats with intact carotid sinus nerves, but sectioned aortic depressor and vagus nerves. Spike-triggered averaging, arterial pulse-triggered analysis, and coherence analysis revealed that the naturally occurring discharges of 24 of these RVLM neurons and 41 of these CMR neurons were correlated to both the 10-Hz and cardiac-related rhythms in inferior cardiac postganglionic SND. The discharges of the other neurons were correlated to only the 10-Hz rhythm (15 RVLM and 6 CMR neurons) or to only the cardiac-related rhythm (5 RVLM neurons and 1 CMR neuron) in SND. The time-controlled collision test verified that 16 of 18 RVLM and 31 of 34 CMR neurons with activity correlated to both rhythms were antidromically activated by stimulation of the white matter of the first thoracic (T1) segment of the spinal cord. In contrast, only 1 of 10 RVLM neurons and 0 of 4 CMR neurons with activity correlated to only the 10-Hz rhythm could be antidromically activated by stimulation at T1. Also 0 of 3 RVLM neurons with activity correlated to only the cardiac-related rhythm in SND were antidromically activated by spinal stimulation. These data show for the first time that bulbospinal sympathetic pathways emanating from the RVLM and CMR are comprised almost exclusively of neurons whose discharges are correlated to both the cardiac-related and 10-Hz rhythms in SND. Moreover, the data support the hypothesis that the outputs of the cardiac-related and 10-Hz rhythm generators converge on RVLM and CMR bulbospinal neurons rather than on their antecedent interneurons. Finally, the data demonstrate that a substantial proportion of RVLM neurons and a small group of CMR neurons with activity correlated to SND do not project to the thoracic spinal cord. Their discharges were correlated to only one of the rhythms in SND. Their axonal trajectories and functions are unknown.