Reflex responses to stimulation of baroreceptors in the right subclavian artery

¹ Department of Physiology, Medical School, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota

The effect of stimulation of the baroreceptors of the right subclavian artery upon the efferent impulse activity of the cardioregulatory and abdominal sympathetic nerves was investigated in decerebrate cats and anesthetized dogs. Increase in the pressure in the isolated and perfused right subclavian-carotid arterial segment diminished or abolished the impulse activity in the cardiac and abdominal sympathetic nerves. Simultaneously there was an increase of impulse activity in the cardiac vagus. No appreciable change of impulse activity in the long ciliary nerve was noticed. Impulse activity in the cardiac vagus nerve was found to be predominant during expiration both in decerebrated and anesthetized dogs with bilateral occlusion of the common carotid arteries.

Key Words: abdominal sympathetic nerve • cardioregulatory nerve • cardiac reflex • efferent impulses in the autonomic nerve long ciliary nerve • subclavian artery baroreceptors

Submitted on February 21, 1963