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Biologie Fonctionnelle du Neurone, Institut Alfred Fessard, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Gif-sur-Yvette, France.

1. To understand the neural organization of respiratory movement control and its developmental transformation, we studied the temporal characteristics of inspiratory activities, especially nerve-to-nerve short-term synchronization, in an in vitro preparation of the isolated, perfused brainstem of kittens aged 0-14 days (postnatal day (P) 0-14). 2. In the inspiratory discharges of facial, vagus, glossopharyngeal and hypoglossal nerves, a stable oscillation with a period of 30-40 ms (i.e. approximately 30 Hz) was observed in all preparations examined. In addition, we demonstrated that this oscillation presents a strong short-term synchrony between distinct inspiratory nerves. This nerve-to-nerve synchronization was already apparent at approximately 12 h after birth. The degree of synchronization as evaluated by coherence spectral analysis was larger than 0.85 in all cases at any age examined. 3. This nerve-to-nerve coherence was not affected by changes in temperature (28-36 degrees C), whereas respiratory rate, oscillation frequency and oscillation amplitude as estimated by power spectral analysis were highly temperature sensitive. 4. The nerve-to-nerve synchronization, as well as the approximately 30 Hz oscillation, remained unchanged after a pontomedullary transection, indicating that the medullary network, completely isolated from other structures and afferents, is sufficient to produce both fast oscillation and nerve-to-nerve synchronization. 5. Based on these observations in vitro, we conclude that nerve-to-nerve coherent inspiratory oscillation generated in the brainstem is already functional early in life.