The innervation of the digestive tract, which is known to control a wide array of functions including smooth muscle contractility, splanchnic microcirculation, epithelial cell absorption/secretion and endocrine secretion, is composed of an intrinsic component consisting of neuronal cell bodies and nerve processes of the enteric neurons (i.e., the enteric nervous system) and an extrinsic compone...

PURPOSE To assess the most effective magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) sequence for the visualization of the 9th, 10th, and 11th cranial nerves (glossopharyngeal, vagus, and accessory nerves, respectively) in their intraforaminal/canalicular courses. MATERIALS AND METHODS Balanced fast-field echo (b-FFE), 3D-T2W DRIVE, T2W 2D TSE and post-contrast T1W MRI sequences were all applied and we trie...

The role of the autonomic nerve on the gastric motility of the domestic fowl has been investigated by Nolf (1), Ihnen (2) and Hassan (3). Nolf has reported that both excitatory and inhibitory fibres are included in the vagus and also in the sympathetic nerve to the proventriculus and gizzard. However, there is little detailed study on the mechanism which causes excitatory and inhibitory respons...

The evolution of the autonomic nervous system provides an organizing principle to interpret the adaptive significance of mammalian affective processes including courting, sexual arousal, copulation, and the establishment of enduring social bonds. According to the Polyvagal Theory (Porges, 1995, 1996, 1997), the well-documented phylogenetic shift in the neural regulation of the autonomic nervous...

• Several recent studies have shown that stimulation of the carotid sinus baroreceptors exerts a reflex, negative inotropic effect upon ventricular performance." Since it was generally accepted that the vagus nerves do not directly influence the ventricular myocardium," it was assumed that the efferent fibers of the carotido-ventricular reflex traversed sympathetic pathways exclusively. In many...

The role of the parasympathetic nervous system, operating via the vagus nerve, in determining heart rate (f(H)) and cardiorespiratory interactions was investigated in the neotropical fish Piaractus mesopotamicus. Motor nuclei of branches of cranial nerves VII, IX and X, supplying respiratory muscles and the heart, have an overlapping distribution in the brainstem, while the Vth motor nucleus is...

BACKGROUND Recently, vagus nerve preservation or reconstruction of vagus has received increasing attention. The present study aimed to investigate the feasibility of reconstructing the severed vagal trunk using an autologous sural nerve graft. METHODS Ten adult Beagle dogs were randomly assigned to two groups of five, the nerve grafting group (TG) and the vagal resection group (VG). The gastr...

BACKGROUND Vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) therapy has been used for chronic heart failure and is believed to improve imbalance of autonomic control by increasing parasympathetic activity. Although it is known that there is neural communication between the VN and the cervical sympathetic trunk, there are few data regarding the quantity and/or distribution of the sympathetic components within the ...

• Numerous workers have investigated the effects of stimulating the vagus nerves upon ventricular contractility in the mammalian heart. Many of these investigators" concluded that vagal stimulation has little or no influence on the contractility of the ventricles, while others^ deduced that it elicits a negative inotropic effect. Currently, the former opinion appears to be almost universally ac...