Pulmonary 8: Control of Respiration Flashcards
Describe the phases of breathing.
What happens during exercise?
3 phases: inspiratory air flow, expiratory airflow, expiratory apnea
during exercise the frequency of breathing accelerates primarily by decreasing the pause time, and tidal volume increases by using the inspiratory reserve and expiratory reserve capacities
What does the neural respiratory controller do?
matches act of breathing with metabolic demands of the body
Describe the control of respiration in regards to sensors/effectors/central controller.
Slide 4
central controller (pons, medulla, other parts of brain) send output to effectors (respiratory muscles) which activate sensors (chemoreceptors, lung and other receptors) which send input to the central controller
What are the major sites of respiratory control in automatic respiration and voluntary respiration.
Automatic respiration:
- respiratory control center
- central chemoreceptors
- peripheral chemoreceptors
- pulmonary mechanoreceptors/sensory nerves
Voluntary respiration:
motor cortex–> corticospinal tracts
Peripheral chemoreceptors:
Small highly vascular bodies located in the region of the aortic arch and just medial to the carotid sinus at the bifurcation of the internal and external carotid arteries (near the baroreceptors).
Primarily activated by low arterial PO2 (like severe hypoxia) but also is affected by high arterial PCO2 and low arterial pH (high H+).
Afferent nerve activity from the carotid and aortic bodies is carried through the IX and X nerve, respectively, to the medulla (similar to the baroreceptors).
Draw a flow chart of starting with cerebral cortex showing how respiratory center/medulla activates mechano and chemoreceptors.
Slide 5
Describe the control of respiration as it pertains to medulla and pons in more detail. What are the main components?
For the pontine respiratory group (PRG) what effect does the apneustic center and pneumotaxic center have on DRG?
Draw/ refer to diagram
medulla (generates breathing pattern) -dorsal respiratory grouup (DRG) (nucleus tractus solitarius) -ventral respiratory group (VRG) (nucleus retrofacilias, nucleus retroambiguus, nucleus paraambiguus)
pontine respiratory group (PRG- controls breathing pattern) apneustic center (excitatory effect on DRG) pneumotaxic center (inhibits DRG)
Slide 6
What controls inspiratory and expiratory neurons?
DRG of medulla - inspiratory neurons
VRG of medulla - inspiratory and expiratory neurons
Describe the PRG components: apneustic center and pneumotaxic center
PRG controls breathing pattern
apneustic center: excitatory effect on DRG
(DRG=inspiratory neurons)
pneumotaxic center: inhibits DRG (inhibits inspiratory neurons)
Where are central chemoreceptors? What are they sensitive to?
Describe blood brain barrier (its permeability to H+ and HCO3- and CO2)
How do chemoreceptors respond to changes in PCO2 and PO2?
How do change sin PaCO2 affect PCO2 in CSF?
Slide 9
-located on ventrolateral surface of the medulla oblongata
- sensitive to changes in pH in CSF
- Blood brain barrier is relatively impermeable to H+ and HCO3- but is permeable to CO2
Respond to changes in PCO2 but not to changes in PO2
PCO2 in CSF changes with changes in PaCO2 within minutes
slide 9
Describe peripheral receptors. Where are they?
What do they respond to?
What are they responsible for?
carotid bodies, aortic bodies
Respond to decreases in PO2, decreases in pH (carotid bodies only), increases in PCO2
Responsible for 20-40% of the ventilatory response to CO2
What are the only chemoreceptors that respond to changes in PO2?
peripheral chemoreceptors
Draw a graph of robust firing activity of peripheral chemoreceptors when PaO2 is less than 70-80mmHg.
(arterial PO2 mmHg on horizontal axis and %maximal response on vertical axis)
Slide 11
Draw a diagram of how central, peripheral chemoreceptors and pulmonary mechanoreceptors and sensory receptors all send inhibitory or excitatory input to respiratory centers.
Slide 12
Describe pulmonary stretch receptors.
Where are they?
What is the Hering-Breuer inflation Reflex?
What is the Herine-Breuer deflation Reflex?
When are they active in adults/when may they be important?
- within the smooth muscle cells of airways
- inflation of lung inhibits inspiratory muscle activity (via vagus nerve)=Hering-Breuer reflex
- deflation of the lung initiates inspiratory activity= Hering-Breuer deflation reflex
Hering-Breuer reflexes are largely inactive in adults, unless tidal volumes are very high
-may be important in newborns
Describe irritant receptors. Where are they? What stimulates them? Where do impulses travel through? What clinical role may they play?
- thought to lie between airway epithelial cells
- stimulated by noxious gases, cigarette smoke, dust, cold air
- impulses travel through vagus nerve
- may play a role in asthma