Respiratory control centers Function Cerebral hemisphere Regulates respiratory center located in pons and medulla Midbrain Rate of inspiration Pons
Pneumotaxic center Intensity of respiration Apneustic center Rate of inspiration Medulla oblongata Ventral breathing center Responsible for expiratory movement Dorsal breathing center Respiratory control centers Abnormal breathing pattern associated with injury Cerebral hemisphere Cheyne stokes breathing pattern Midbrain Hyperventilation Pons
Pneumotaxic center Cluster breathing pattern Apneustic center Apneustic breathing pattern Medulla oblongata Ventral breathing center Ataxic breathing pattern Dorsal breathing center
These are the dorsal and ventral group of neurons located in the medulla, the
pneumotaxic center and the apneustic center located in the pons.
As the C[O.sub.2] goes on accumulating during breath holding, the chemoreceptors report it promptly to the
pneumotaxic center which tries to stimulate expiratory centre.
The apneustic center stimulates the ventral respiratory group and dorsal respiratory group (VRG and DRC) to inhale, while the
pneumotaxic center switches off inspiration and, working with transpulmonary pressure and elastic recoil, facilitates passive exhalation.
The vagus' visceral information is important for maintaining the reflexes conserving homeostatic functions and which are coordinated together with talking, masticatory-deglutitory-respiratory, pain modulation, cardio-pulmonary, vasopressor, secretomotor and somatomotor mechanism complexes; trigeminal afferents participating in vegetative, gustatory,
pneumotaxic and cardio-respiratory centers (Kalia & Mesulman, 1980; Stuesse et al., 1984; Bon et al., 1997; Armstrong & Hopkins, 1998; Saxon & Hopkins, 1998; Ruggiero et al., 2000; Caous et al., 2001; Sato & Momose-Sato, 2004; Afifi & Bergman, 2005; Kobayashi et al., 2005).