Firing properties of single vasoconstrictor neurones in human subjects with high levels of muscle sympathetic activity

Single-unit recordings were made from 19 postganglionic muscle vasoconstrictor axons via tugsten microelectrodes in the peroneal nerve in seven healthy subjects with many multi-unit sympathetic discharges at rest ('high group', 75 ± 5 multi-unit bursts per 100 heart beats, mean ± S.E.M.). The results were compared with previous data from 14 units in subjects with 21 ± 2 multi-unit bursts per 100 heart beats ('low group'). 2. In the 'high group' the units fired spontaneously in 35 ± 4% of all cardiac intervals. One unit only ever fired once per cardiac interval, 14 units (74%) generated maximally two to three spikes, and four units (21%) up to four to five spikes. Of those cardiac intervals in which a unit fired, a single spike occurred in 78%, two spikes in 18%, three spikes in 4% and four spikes in less than 1% of cardiac intervals. Measured as the inverse of all interspike intervals, the mean rate was 0.33 ± 0.04 Hz and the mean intraburst frequency 22.2 ± 1.6 Hz. Most results were similar to those in the 'low group', but in the 'low group' heart rate was higher (64.5 vs. 50.4 beats min^-1) and mean firing frequency was higher (0.49 ± 0.06 Hz). 3. During increases of multi-unit burst activity evoked by sustained inspiratory-capacity apnoea the firing probability of nine units in the 'high group' increased from 33 ± 6 to 56 + 3% of the cardiac intervals. Simultaneously, the incidence of single spikes decreased and the incidence of multiple spikes per cardiac interval increased, resulting in an increase of mean firing frequency from 0.23 ± 0.04 Hz at rest to 1.04 ± 0.14 Hz during the apnoea. 4. We conclude that single muscle vasoconstrictor neurones usually fire only a solitary spike during sympathetic bursts both in subjects with a high and in subjects with a low number of bursts at rest. Presumably, differences in the numbers of bursts are due mainly to differences in firing probability and recruitment of sympathetic fibres. During acute increases of multi-unit activity, both increases in discharge frequency and recruitment of additional neurones contribute to the increased intensity of an individual sympathetic burst.