title: Parasympathetic Vagal Control of Cardiac Function.
abstract: This brief review focuses on four new topics, with novel and clinically significant consequences, concerning the powerful influence of parasympathetic activity on cardiac function. In this short summary, we will highlight very recent and important work, published in the last 3-4 years, that (1) challenges the paradigm that parasympathetic activity to the heart is involved in the control of heart rate but plays little role in other cardiac functions, (2) characterizes important long-range synaptic pathways to parasympathetic cardiac vagal neurons that are involved in "higher" brain functions (such as arousal and emotional challenges), (3) asks whether implantable chronic vagal nerve stimulation is a promising clinical tool for treating cardiovascular diseases, and (4) describes newly identified neuropeptides and other modulators that can influence the generation and maintenance of parasympathetic activity to the heart.
authors: Department of Pharmacology and Physiology, The George Washington University, 2300 Eye St NW, Washington, DC, 20037, USA.
authors: Jhansi
authors: J
authors: Dyavanapalli
authors: Department of Pharmacology and Physiology, The George Washington University, 2300 Eye St NW, Washington, DC, 20037, USA.
authors: Olga
authors: O
authors: Dergacheva
authors: Department of Pharmacology and Physiology, The George Washington University, 2300 Eye St NW, Washington, DC, 20037, USA.
authors: Xin
authors: X
authors: Wang
authors: Department of Pharmacology and Physiology, The George Washington University, 2300 Eye St NW, Washington, DC, 20037, USA. dmendel@gwu.edu.
authors: David
authors: D
authors: Mendelowitz
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D006321:Heart / Q000502:physiology*; D006339:Heart Rate; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000503:physiopathology; D009479:Neuropeptides / Q000378:metabolism; D014630:Vagus Nerve
chemical_list: D009479:Neuropeptides
keywords: Cardiac function; Cardiac vagal neurons; Neuropeptides; Parasympathetic activity; Vagal nerve stimulation