Selective paralysis of voluntary but not limbically influenced automatic respiration
F. E. Munschauer, M. J. Mador, A. Ahuja and L. Jacobs
Department of Neurology, State University of New York, Buffalo.
We describe a patient in whom a discrete infarction of the ventral basis
pontis caused a complete loss of voluntary respiration, while automatic
respiration remained intact. Respiratory excursions, quantified title
volumes, and ventilatory response to carbon dioxide were normal, but the
patient could not volitionally modify any respiratory parameters. Emotional
stimuli producing laughter, crying, or anxiety appropriately modulated
automatic respiration. This case established that pathways subserving
limbic modulation of automatic respiration descend in the pontine tegmentum
and/or lateral portion of the basis pontis spared by this lesion.
Furthermore, descending limbic influences on automatic respiration are
anatomically and functionally independent of the voluntary respiratory
system.
