Thirty-one barosensitive bulbospinal neurons were recorded from the subretrofacial (SRF) nucleus in eight chloralose-anaesthetised, paralysed cats. Close arterial injections of CO2-saturated saline were used to stimulate carotid body chemoreceptors. Seven neurons were abruptly excited and six neurons abruptly inhibited by chemoreceptor stimuli: these were primary responses, independent of changes in blood pressure or central respiratory drive (monitored from the phrenic nerve). A further eight neurons responded only indirectly to chemoreceptor stimuli, showing enhanced modulation of their activity coupled to the enhanced central respiratory drive. The distinction between primary and secondary responses was shown more clearly when central respiratory drive was inhibited by superior laryngeal nerve stimulation. The remaining ten neurons showed no clear response to chemoreceptor stimuli. SRF bulbospinal neurons thus show the same range of responses to chemoreceptor stimuli as the sympathetic neurons they are believed to drive.