JN Watch the video to learn how APS reaches out to developing nations.
HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS
QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced]


     

J Neurophysiol 90: 47-54, 2003. First published March 20, 2003; doi:10.1152/jn.00066.2003
0022-3077/03 $5.00
This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
90/1/47    most recent
00066.2003v1
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Right arrow Citation Map
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in Web of Science
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via HighWire
Right arrow Citing Articles via Web of Science (3)
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Orer, H. S.
Right arrow Articles by Gebber, G. L.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Orer, H. S.
Right arrow Articles by Gebber, G. L.

Fractal Activity Generated Independently by Medullary Sympathetic Premotor and Preganglionic Sympathetic Neurons

Hakan S. Orer1,2, Mahasweta Das1, Susan M. Barman1 and Gerard L. Gebber1

1Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan 48823; and 2Department of Pharmacology, Faculty of Medicine, Hacettepe University, 06100 Ankara, Turkey

Submitted 24 February 2003; accepted in final form 12 March 2003

In anesthetized cats with cervical spinal cord transection, Fano factor analysis was used to test for time-scale invariant (fractal) fluctuations in spike counts of single preganglionic cervical sympathetic neurons (PSNs) and putative sympathetic premotor neurons located in the rostral ventrolateral medulla (RVLM) and caudal medullary raphe. The medullary neurons exhibited cardiac-related activity, and their axons projected to the spinal cord, as demonstrated by antidromic activation. The variance-to-mean spike count ratio (Fano factor) was plotted as a function of the window size used to count spikes. The Fano factor curves for seven PSNs, eight RVLM neurons, and eight raphe neurons contained a power law relationship extending over more than one time scale. In these cases, random shuffling of the interspike intervals in the original time series eliminated the power law relationship. Thus the power law relationships can be attributed to long-range correlations among interspike intervals rather than simply to the distribution of the intervals that is not changed by shuffling the data. It is concluded that PSNs and sympathetic premotor neurons in the medulla can independently generate fractal firing patterns.

Address for reprint requests: G. L. Gebber, Dept. of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Michigan State Univ., East Lansing, MI 48824 (E-mail: gebber{at}msu.edu).




This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 J. Neurophysiol.Home page
G. L. Gebber, H. S. Orer, and S. M. Barman
Fractal Noises and Motions in Time Series of Presympathetic and Sympathetic Neural Activities
J Neurophysiol, February 1, 2006; 95(2): 1176 - 1184.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS
Visit Other APS Journals Online
Copyright © 2003 by the The American Physiological Society.