Associate Professor of Pediatrics and Physiology
Dr. Darnall received his A.B. from Stanford University in 1968 and his M.D. from UCLA in 1972. He completed an internship in pediatrics at Babies and ChildrenÕs Hospital in Cleveland and finished his training in pediatrics and neonatology at Stanford University in 1979. From 1979 to 1990 Dr. Darnall was first Assistant and then Associate Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Virginia and joined the faculties of Pediatrics and Physiology at Dartmouth in 1990.
Dr. Darnall is the director of the training program in Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine. Dr. Darnall is especially interested in the management of the very low birthweight infant and apnea of prematurity. He is actively involved in investigation of the neurobiology of respiratory control in the neonate. Most recently he has focused on the central cardiorespiratory regulatory mechanisms involved in apnea in the new-born infant and sudden infant death syndrome. He has investigated the role of cerebral blood flow in the etiology of hypoxia induced apnea, and has studied the central mechanisms responsible for the integration of cardiovascular and respiratory activity in medullary sympathetic outflow. Currently he is investigating the integration of cardiovascular and respiratory responses to upper airway stimulation in the newborn piglet, the role of the pons in the ventilatory response to hypoxia in the piglet and newborn rat, and the influence of vestibular stimulation on sleep and breathing in the human premature infant.
Van Der Velde L, Curran AK, Filiano JJ, Darnall RA, Bartlett D Jr., Leiter JC., Prolongation of the laryngeal chemoreflex after inhibition of the rostral ventral medulla in piglets: a role for SIDS? J. Appl. Physiol., 94:1883-1895, 2003.Darnall RA, Harris MB, Gill WH, Hoffman JA, Brown JW, Niblock MM, Inhibition of serotonergic neurons in the nucleus paragigantocellularis lateralis fragments sleep and decreases rapid eye movement sleep: Implications for The Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, J. Neurosci 25: 8322-8332, 2005.
Hoffman JM, Brown JW, Sirlin EA, Benoit AM, Gill WG, Harris MB, and Darnall RA, Activation of 5-HT1A receptors in the paragigantocellularis lateralis decreases shivering but not peripheral vasoconstriction during cooling in the conscious piglet, Am J Physiology: Regul Integ Comp Physiol, 293:R518-R527, 2007.
Brown JW, Sirlin EA, Benoit AM, Hoffman JM, and Darnall RA, Activation of 5-HT1A receptors in the medullary raphé disrupts sleep and decreases shivering during cooling in the conscious Piglet, Am J Physiol: Regul Integr Comp Physiol Am J Physiol: Regul Integ Comp Physiol Epub, Dec 19, 2007.
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