A 'pneumotaxic centre' in rats.

Electrical and chemical lesions in the ventrolateral pons produced apneustic breathing in anesthetized, vagotomized, paralyzed, ventilated adult rats (n = 13). Apneustic breathing did not develop if the vagi remained intact and was reversed partially with vagal (proximal end) stimulation. Physiologically, these data are similar to those obtained following dorsolateral pontine lesion in rat and other mammalian species and support the hypothesis that pontine neurons influence breathing similarly across mammalian species.