Effects of afferent stimulation of the lingual nerve (LNAS) on gastrointestinal motility and the reflex pathways which mediate the response to LNAS were investigated in rats. LNAS induced excitatory, inhibitory or biphasic responses in the stomach, duodenum and proximal colon. These responses continued after bilateral vagotomy, but were abolished after additional bilateral splanchnicotomy or tr...

Arnold's nerve ear-cough reflex is recognised to occur uncommonly in patients with chronic cough. In these patients, mechanical stimulation of the external auditory meatus can activate the auricular branch of the vagus nerve (Arnold's nerve) and evoke reflex cough. This is an example of hypersensitivity of vagal afferent nerves, and there is now an increasing recognition that many cases of refr...

The function of time-dependent, hyperpolarization-activated inward rectification was analyzed on compound potentials of nonmyelinated axons in the mammalian peripheral nervous system. Isolated rat vagus nerves and fascicles of biopsied human sural nerve were tested in a three-chambered, Vaseline-gap organ bath at 37 degrees C. Inward rectification was assessed by recording the effects of long-l...

The innervation of the musculature of the tongue and the hyobranchial apparatus of caecilians has long been assumed to be simple and to exhibit little interspecific variation. A study of 14 genera representing all six families of caecilians demonstrates that general patterns of innervation by the trigeminal, facial, glossopharyngeal, and vagus nerves are similar across taxa but that the composi...