Publisher Summary A substantial portion of the excitatory drive to vasomotor sympathetic
preganglionic neurons originates from reticulospinal tonically active cells located in the
rostral ventrolateral medulla (RVLM). This interpretation does not exclude the possible
contribution of other tonically active bulbospinal or propriospinal inputs in generating the
vasomotor outflow, but under usual anesthetic conditions, it seems that these alternative
inputs are simply insufficient to bring the vasomotor preganglionic neurons to their firing …