The reticular formation is a network of loosely packed, multipolar neurons located inside the brainstem, from the mesencephalon through the pons to the medulla oblongata. The reticular formation provides a transition between ascending click here and descending motor and sensory pathways.[10] The reticular formation helps with automatic regulation of heart rate variability, breathing, and the process of digestion. Reticular formation also helps to regulate the processes of micturition and defecation.[28] In addition, the reticular formation regulates brainstem reflexes, such as blinking, masseter,

and pharyngeal.[10, 11] Pontine reticular formation can be divided into a lateral and a medial tegmental field. The L region is located more ventrally and more laterally in the pontine tegmentum than

the M region, overlapping the PLX-4720 cell line lateral pontine tegmental reticular formation.[29] The lateral tegmental field also houses the premotor neurons, with long descending axons to the motor neurons of the spinal cord that are involved in micturition.[28] Detrusor relaxation and external sphincter contraction are elicited by electrical stimulation of the lateral tegmental field of the pontine reticular formation.[15, 29, 30] R1 is relayed through an oligosynaptic path, consisting of one or two interneurons;[31] however, R2 are relayed through a polysynaptic path, including neurons in the reticular formation.[32] For the R2, trigeminal sensory impulses are relayed by a pathway that ascends bilaterally to the facial nuclei in the pons. These trigeminofacial

connections pass through the lateral pontine tegmental reticular formation,[27, RVX-208 33] from where L region are thought to overlap. In monkeys, microstimulation of the pontine lateral tegmental field suppresses reflex blinks.[34] Another pontine region that is responsible for storage is found in the pontine reticular formation ventral to the M region known as nucleus reticularis pontis oralis.[35] It is suggested that this nucleus takes a role in modulating both micturition and blink reflex. Increased R2 times and urgency have been shown in a patient with lesion of the nucleus reticularis pontis oralis.[36] In the present study, all of the late blink latency times were found to be longer in patients with OAB. The early blink latency times were not significantly different between the groups. Based on these neuroanatomical and possibly functional relationships between blinking and micturition; assessing significant differences in only the late blink reflex latency times suggests that the increase in both the late blink latency times and the storage symptoms may originate from a brainstem structure that can mediate both micturition and the late blink reflex. This structure seems to be the pontine reticular formation. However, it may derive from rostral pontine reticular formation or L region.