Fig. 1

Schematic diagram explaining the method used to observe cells in the neonatal rat thoracic spinal cord. A Distribution of inspiratory interneurons in the cross-sectional plane of the thoracic spinal cord modified from Fig. 5 in Iizuka et al. [3]. Each interneuron is indicated by a black circle. The spinal cord from T1 to T7 was sectioned at the midline indicated by dotted line a. As shown by dotted line b, the ventral funiculus was carefully removed with insect pins. B Arrangement of the preparation for the objective lens