Does the vagus nerve mediate the sixth sense?
Can sensations originating from the internal environment modulate attitude and behaviour? Can the feedback about the operation of the viscera provide a calming and relaxing influence? Information from the chest and abdomen is delivered continuously by the vagus nerve, the largest visceral sensory nerve in the body. Because various 'stress-related' diseases can be associated with impaired functions in sensory vagal fibres, a better understanding of how sensory vagal information is processed in the CNS might offer new strategies for the treatment and/or prevention of several disorders, including 'drug-resistant' forms of eating disorder, anxiety, chronic depression and epilepsy. A neuronal circuitry that has been suggested by experimental data to mediate sensory vagal inputs to those brain areas that are involved in the generation of 'stress-related' disorders is outlined.
Zagon
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Dept Anatomy and Developmental Biology, Royal Free and University College Medical School, Rowland Hill Street, NW3 2PF, London, UK. aniko@rfc.ucl.ac.uk
D000818:Animals; D006801:Humans; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000209:etiology; D008959:Models, Neurological; D009422:Nervous System Diseases / Q000209:etiology; D012677:Sensation / Q000502:physiology*; D014630:Vagus Nerve / Q000502:physiology*; D014781:Viscera / Q000502:physiology*