Realistically, most professional and general physiology courses will have only one or two lecture hours devoted to cardiovascular reflexes. Therefore, it is important to choose carefully the points you consider the most important and focus your lecture (s) to stress these points. In writing this article, I have tried to highlight the concepts that, in my opinion, are the most important. I have geared the discussion to a presentation of one to two lecture hours, and have indicated areas that may be covered in more depth if time is available.

When teaching autonomic reflexes that control the cardiovascular system, I focus on the arterial baroreflex. This topic should be presented after the students have learned about the autonomic nervous system and basic hemodynamics. As a brief introduction, it is helpful to review the autonomic innervation of the cardiovascular system (Fig. 1) and the relationships between mean arterial pressure (MAP), cardiac output (CO), total peripheral resistance (TPR), heart rate (HR), and stroke volume (SV): MAP CO TPR and CO HR SV. The major point to make is that the sympathetic nervous system can rapidly increase MAP by constricting arterioles, or by increasing heart rate or stroke volume. The predominant effect of activation of the parasympathetic nervous system is a rapid decrease of heart rate, which will influence cardiac output. This review of the cardiovascular effects of activating the efferent limb of the autonomic nervous system sets the stage for discussing how efferent outflow is controlled by afferent input from sensory receptors.