Responses of Neurons in the Rostral Ventrolateral Medulla (RVLM) of Conscious Felines to Anticipated and Passive Movements

ABSTRACT Considerable evidence demonstrates that the vestibular system contributes to regulating sympathetic nerve activity and blood pressure. Initial studies in decerebrate animals showed that presumed pre-sympathetic neurons in the rostral ventrolateral medulla (RVLM) respond to small-amplitude (<10°) rotations of the body, as in other brain areas that process vestibular signals, despite the fact that such movements do not appreciably affect blood distribution in the body. However, a subsequent experiment in conscious animals showed that few RVLM neurons respond to small-amplitude movements. This study tested the hypothesis that vestibular inputs to RVLM neurons are modulated in conscious animals, such that vestibulosympathetic responses are only elicited when changes in body position are large enough to require changes in sympathetic nerve activity. The activity of approximately a third of RVLM neurons whose firing rate was related to the cardiac cycle, and thus likely received baroreceptor inputs, responded to vestibular inputs elicited by 40° head-up tilts in conscious cats, but not during 10° sinusoidal rotations in the pitch plane that affected the activity of neurons in brain regions providing inputs to the RVLM. These data suggest the existence of brain circuitry that suppresses vestibular influences on the activity of RVLM neurons and the sympathetic nervous system unless these inputs are physiologically warranted. We also determined that RVLM activity is not altered prior to tilts when a light cue is provided signaling the movement. The simplest interpretation of this findings is that feedforward cardiovascular responses are associated with active movement such as occurs during exercise, but not passive movements that require cardiovascular adjustments.