Cardiorespiratory interactions previously identified as mammalian are present in the primitive lungfish.

ABSTRACT: The present study has revealed that the lungfish has both structural and functional features of its system for physiological control of heart rate, previously considered solely mammalian, that together generate variability (HRV). Ultrastructural and electrophysiological investigation revealed that the nerves connecting the brain to the heart are myelinated, conferring rapid conduction velocities, comparable to mammalian fibers that generate instantaneous changes in heart rate at the onset of each air breath. These respiration-related changes in beat-to-beat cardiac intervals were detected by complex analysis of HRV and shown to maximize oxygen uptake per breath, a causal relationship never conclusively demonstrated in mammals. Cardiac vagal preganglionic neurons, responsible for controllin

SUBMITTER: Monteiro DA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5833999 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature