Basis for phase relations between baroreceptor and sympathetic nervous discharge

The phase relations between the cardiac cycle and sympathetic nervous discharge (SND) were studied with an average-response computer in the anesthetized cat. Maximum SND occurred during early diastole at heart rates between 3 and 4 beats/s. Dramatic shifts in the phase relations between SND and the cardiac cycle accompanied the decrease in heart rate produced by stimulation of the distal end of the cut right vagus nerve. The point of maximum SND was shifted from early diastole to near peak systole and then into the late diastolic phase of the preceding cardiac cycle as heart rate was progressively lowered to 2 beats/s. These observations indicate that synchronization of SND during each cardiac cycle is not the simple consequence of the waxing and waning of baroreceptor nerve activity. Rather, 1:1 locking of bursts of SND to the cardiac cycle is explained on the basis of entrainment by the baroreceptor reflexes of a sympathetic rhythm of central origin. An inhibitory-phasing hypothesis is proposed to account for entrainment. In addition, two components (spinal and brainstem) of sympathoinhibition associated with the pulse-synchronous discharge of the carotid sinus nerve were revealed when the 1:1 relationship between bursts of SND and the cardiac cycle was disrupted at heart rates below 2 beats/s.