New insights into sucking, swallowing and breathing central generators: A complexity analysis of rhythmic motor behaviors. (18th January 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Samson, Nathalie; Praud, Jean-Paul; Quenet, Brigitte; Similowski, Thomas; Straus, Christian
• Is Part Of: Neuroscience letters. Volume 638(2017)
• Page Start: 90
• Page End: 95
• Publication Date: 2017-01-18
• Subjects: Sucking -- Swallowing -- Control of breathing -- Complexity -- Lamb; Neurology -- Periodicals; Neurology -- Periodicals; Research -- Periodicals; Neurologie -- Périodiques; Neuroanatomie -- Périodiques; Neuropharmacologie -- Périodiques; Neurophysiologie -- Périodiques; Neurology; Periodicals; Electronic journals; 617.48
• DOI: 10.1016/j.neulet.2016.12.016
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0304-3940

Abstract

Highlights: Breathing in the lamb is a complex and chaos-like behavior, as in many other animals. Swallowing in the lamb also exhibits complex and chaos-like dynamics. Sucking in the lamb does not display chaos-like complexity. The central pattern generator that drives sucking is functionally different from the ones that drive breathing and swallowing. Abstract: Sucking, swallowing and breathing are dynamic motor behaviors. Breathing displays features of chaos-like dynamics, in particular nonlinearity and complexity, which take their source in the automatic command of breathing. In contrast, buccal/gill ventilation in amphibians is one of the rare motor behaviors that do not display nonlinear complexity. This study aimed at assessing whether sucking and swallowing would also follow nonlinear complex dynamics in the newborn lamb. Breathing movements were recorded before, during and after bottle-feeding. Sucking pressure and the integrated EMG of the thyroartenoid muscle, as an index of swallowing, were recorded during bottle-feeding. Nonlinear complexity of the whole signals was assessed through the calculation of the noise limit value (NL). Breathing and swallowing always exhibited chaos-like dynamics. The NL of breathing did not change significantly before, during or after bottle-feeding. On the other hand, sucking inconsistently and significantly less frequently than breathing exhibited a chaos-like dynamics. Therefore, the central pattern generator (CPG) that drives sucking may be functionally different from the breathing CPG. Furthermore, the analogy between buccal/gill ventilation and sucking suggests that the latter may take its phylogenetic origin in the gill ventilation CPG of the common ancestor of extant amphibians and mammals.