“…Taking into account that anesthesia attenuates baroreflex function (Palmisano et al, 1991;Tanaka and Nishikawa, 1999;Akine et al, 2001;Bassani et al, 2013), our laboratory developed a technique to electrically activate the aortic depressor nerve, an afference of the baroreflex, in conscious rats. We demonstrated that electrical stimulation of the aortic depressor nerve activates the baroreflex promoting bradycardia and hypotension, under physiological (De Paula et al, 1999;Durand et al, 2009) and pathophysiological conditions (Salgado et al, 2007;Durand et al, 2009Durand et al, , 2012, without the undesirable effects of anesthesia. Moreover, electrical stimulation of the aortic depressor nerve in conscious rats shifts the sympathovagal balance toward a parasympathetic predominance (Krieger et al, 1982;Chapleau et al, 1988).…”