Discharges of aortic and carotid sinus baroreceptors during spontaneous motor activity and pharmacologically evoked pressor interventions

Our laboratory has demonstrated that the cardiomotor component of aortic baroreflex is temporarily inhibited at the onset of spontaneous motor activity in decerebrate cats, without altering carotid sinus baroreflex. A reason for this dissociation may be attributed to a difference in the responses between aortic nerve activity (AoNA) and carotid sinus nerve activity (CsNA) during spontaneous motor activity. The stimulus–response curves of AoNA and CsNA against mean arterial blood pressure (MAP) were compared between the pressor interventions evoked by spontaneous motor activity and by intravenous administration of phenylephrine or norepinephrine, in which the responses in heart rate (HR) were opposite (i.e., tachycardia vs. baroreflex bradycardia), despite the identical increase in MAP of 34–40 mmHg. In parallel to the pressor response, mean AoNA and CsNA increased similarly by 78–81 and by 88 % of the baseline control, respectively, irrespective of whether the pressor response was evoked by spontaneous motor activity or by a pharmacological intervention. The slope of the stimulus–response curve of the mean AoNA became greater (P < 0.05) during spontaneous motor activity as compared to the pharmacological intervention. On the other hand, the stimulus–response curve of the mean CsNA and its slope were equal (P > 0.05) between the two pressor interventions. Furthermore, the slopes of the stimulus–response curves of both diastolic AoNA and CsNA (defined as the minimal value within a beat) exhibited a greater increase during spontaneous motor activity. All differences in the slopes of the stimulus–response curves were abolished by restraining HR at the intrinsic cardiac frequency. In conclusion, mean mass activities of both aortic and carotid sinus baroreceptors are able to encode the beat-by-beat changes in MAP not only at rest but also during spontaneous motor activity and spontaneous motor activity-related reduction of aortic baroreceptor activity is denied accordingly.