Neural drive to human respiratory muscles

Abstract

This thesis addresses the organisation of drive to human upper airway and inspiratory pump muscles. The characterisation of single motor unit activity is important as the discharge frequency or timing of discharge of each motor unit directly reflects the output of single motoneurones. Thus, the firing properties of a population of motor units is indicative of the neural drive to the motoneurone pool. The experiments presented in Chapter 2 measured the recruitment time of five inspiratory pump muscles (diaphragm, scalene, second parasternal intercostal, and third and fifth dorsal external intercostal muscles) during normal quiet breathing and quantified the timing and magnitude of drive reaching each muscle. Chapter 3 examined the EMG activity of a major upper airway muscle (the genioglossus). The single motor units of the genioglossus display activity that can be grouped into six types based on its association or lack of association with respiration. The types of activity are termed: Inspiratory Phasic, Inspiratory Tonic, Expiratory Phasic, Expiratory Tonic, Tonic, and Tonic Other. A new method is presented in Chapter 4 to illustrate large amounts of data from single motor units recorded from respiratory muscles in a concise manner. This single figure displays for each motor unit, the recruitment time and firing frequency, the peak discharge frequency and its time, and the derecruitment time and its frequency. This method, termed the time-and-frequency plot, is used to demonstrate differences in behaviour between populations of diaphragm (Chapter 2) and genioglossus (Chapter 3) motoneurones. In Chapter 5, genioglossus activity during quiet breathing is compared between a group of patients with severe OSA and healthy control subjects. The distribution of central drive is identical between the OSA and control subjects with the same proportion of the six types of motor unit activity in both groups. However, there are alterations in the onset time of Inspiratory Phasic and Inspiratory Tonic motor units in OSA subjects and their peak discharge rates are also altered. Single motor unit action potentials in OSA subjects showed an increased area. This suggests the presence of neurogenic changes and may provide a pathophysiological explanation for the increased multiunit electromyographic activity reported in OSA subjects during wakefulness.