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Mechanisms Underlying Inspiratory Burst Generation In Prebotzinger Complex Neurons Of Neonatal Mice, Ryland Weed Pace

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

Understanding how molecular and cellular events integrate into a physiological behavior is a major question in neuroscience. Breathing can be easily studied using rhythmically active in vitro models that provide experimental access to perform cellular- and synapse-level experiments. While it is widely accepted that breathing depends on a specific region of the brainstem dubbed the preBotzinger complex (preBotC), the mechanisms responsible for rhythm generation remain unclear. In Chapter 1, we examine the pacemaker hypothesis, which posits that pacemaker properties and/or the persistent sodium current (/NaP) are obligatory for rhythm generation. We found that neither pacemaker properties nor /NaP are essential …