Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 March 2009
Respiratory movements are controlled by two pairs of neuronal groups in the brain stem: nucl. tractus solitarius and nucl. paraambigualis. These neuronal pools receive drive inputs from the forebrain and hypothalamus, and from central and peripheral chemoreceptors (9). Whether there is endogenous spontaneous respiratory rhythmic activity has been a matter of controversy, but this has recently been discovered in brainstem preparations of the neonatal rat in studies by Onimaru and Homma (27).