Medullary reticular formation

Holmes, C. J. Jones, B. E. (1994). Importance of cholinergic, GABAergic, serotonergic and other neurons in the medial medullary reticular formation for sleep-wake states studied by cytotoxic lesions in the cat. Neuroscience 62, 1179-200. 

Sakai, K., Sastre, J. P Kanamori, N. Jouvet, M. (1981). State-specific neurones in the ponto-medullary reticular formation with special reference to the postural atonia during paradoxical sleep in the cat. In Brain Mechanisms of Perceptual Awareness and Purposeful Behavior, ed. O. Pompeiano C. Aimone Marsan. New York, NY Raven Press. 

Siegel, J. M., Wheeler, R. L. McGinty, D. J. (1979). Activity of medullary reticular formation neurons in the unrestrained cat during waking and sleep. Brain Res. 179, 49-60. 

Structures implicated in the production or maintenance of sleep include the nucleus of the solitary tract, dorsal medullary reticular formation, raphe nuclei, thalamus, anterior hypothalamus, preoptic area, basal forebrain, orbitofrontal cortex, caudate nucleus, basal ganglia, and cerebral cortex. None of these structures are individually necessary for sleep. No lesion has produced a long lasting total insomnia. After some sleep-reducing lesions, sleep returns toward normal if sufficient time is allowed for recovery. 

Structures implicated in the production of wakefulness and/or cortical arousal include the ventral medullary reticular formation, oral pontine reticular formation, midbrain reticular formation, posterior hypothalamus, subthalamus, certain areas of the basal forebrain, and the cortical mantle. None of these brain areas are individually necessary for the production or maintenance of wakefulness or arousal. Normal or near-normal wakefulness-arousal results when lesions are produced gradually or when sufficient time is allowed for recovery. 

The brainstem vomiting center is located in the lateral medullary reticular formation and coordinates the complex act of vomiting through interactions with cranial nerves VIII and X and neural networks in the nucleus tractus solitarius that control respiratory, salivatory, and vasomotor centers. High concentrations of muscarinic, histamine Hi, and serotonin 5-HT3 receptors have been identified in the vomiting center. 

Travers JB, DiNardo LA, Karimnamazi H (2000) Medullary reticular formation activity during ingestion and rejection in the awake rat. Exp Brain Res 130 78-92 Ueda T, Ugawa S, Yamamura H, Imaizumi Y, Shimada S (2003) Functional interaction between T2R taste receptors and G-protein alpha subunits expressed in taste receptor cells. J Neurosci 23 7376-7380... 

Herbert, H., Moga, M., and Saper, C. (1990). Connections of the parabrachial nucleus with the nucleus of the solitary tract and the medullary reticular formation in the rat. J. Comp. Neurol. 293, 540-580. 

Epinephrine-containing neurons are found in the medullary reticular formation and make restricted cormections to a few pontine and diencephalic nuclei, coursing as far rostrally as the paraventricular nucleus of the dorsal midline thalamus. Their physiological properties have not been identified. 

Bianco-Centurion, C. A. and Salin-Pascual, R. J. (2001) Extracellular serotonin levels in the medullary reticular formation during normal sleep and after REM sleep deprivation. Brain Res, 923 128-36. 

The neurons of the medullary reticular formation appear to be in some way connected with neurons in the hypothalamus. Indeed, hypothalamic depression may lead to decreased bicarbonate and electrically invoked inspiratory responses [51]. 

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