Rhythmic sympathetic discharges and 'escape behaviour'.

The characteristic rhythmical discharges of single postganglionic sympathetic neurones (PSNs) innervating the caudal ventral tail artery (CVA) of anaesthetised rats can still be recorded following the sectioning of afferents arising from the tail and hindquarters. Consequently, we suggest that such rhythmical discharges are neither a 'local sign' sympathetic response nor a sympathetic correlate of 'escape behaviour'. Copyright 1998 Elsevier Science B.V.