Medical Dialogues
  • Dermatology
Login Register
This site is intended for healthcare professionals only
Login Register
  • MD Brand Connect
  • Vaccine Hub
  • MDTV
    • Breaking News
    • Medical News Today
    • Health News Today
    • Latest
    • Journal Club
    • Medico Legal Update
    • Latest Webinars
    • MD Shorts
    • Health Dialogues
  • Fact Check
  • Health Dialogues
Medical Dialogues
  • Medical News & Guidelines
      • Anesthesiology
      • Cardiology and CTVS
      • Critical Care
      • Dentistry
      • Dermatology
      • Diabetes and Endocrinology
      • ENT
      • Gastroenterology
      • Medicine
      • Nephrology
      • Neurology
      • Obstretics-Gynaecology
      • Oncology
      • Ophthalmology
      • Orthopaedics
      • Pediatrics-Neonatology
      • Psychiatry
      • Pulmonology
      • Radiology
      • Surgery
      • Urology
      • Laboratory Medicine
      • Diet
      • Nursing
      • Paramedical
      • Physiotherapy
  • Health news
      • Doctor News
      • Government Policies
      • Hospital & Diagnostics
      • International Health News
      • Medical Organization News
      • Medico Legal News
      • NBE News
      • NMC News
  • Fact Check
      • Bone Health Fact Check
      • Brain Health Fact Check
      • Cancer Related Fact Check
      • Child Care Fact Check
      • Dental and oral health fact check
      • Diabetes and metabolic health fact check
      • Diet and Nutrition Fact Check
      • Eye and ENT Care Fact Check
      • Fitness fact check
      • Gut health fact check
      • Heart health fact check
      • Kidney health fact check
      • Medical education fact check
      • Men's health fact check
      • Respiratory fact check
      • Skin and hair care fact check
      • Vaccine and Immunization fact check
      • Women's health fact check
  • AYUSH
    • Ayurveda
    • Homeopathy
    • Siddha
    • Unani
    • Yoga
  • State News
      • Andaman and Nicobar Islands
      • Andhra Pradesh
      • Arunachal Pradesh
      • Assam
      • Bihar
      • Chandigarh
      • Chattisgarh
      • Dadra and Nagar Haveli
      • Daman and Diu
      • Delhi
      • Goa
      • Gujarat
      • Haryana
      • Himachal Pradesh
      • Jammu & Kashmir
      • Jharkhand
      • Karnataka
      • Kerala
      • Ladakh
      • Lakshadweep
      • Madhya Pradesh
      • Maharashtra
      • Manipur
      • Meghalaya
      • Mizoram
      • Nagaland
      • Odisha
      • Puducherry
      • Punjab
      • Rajasthan
      • Sikkim
      • Tamil Nadu
      • Telangana
      • Tripura
      • Uttar Pradesh
      • Uttrakhand
      • West Bengal
  • Medical Education
      • Ayush Education News
      • Dentistry Education News
      • Medical Admission News
      • Medical Colleges News
      • Medical Courses News
      • Medical Universities News
      • Nursing education News
      • Paramedical Education News
      • Study Abroad
  • Industry
      • Health Investment News
      • Health Startup News
      • Medical Devices News
      • Pharma News
      • Pharmacy Education News
      • Industry Perspective
  • MDTV
      • Health Dialogues MDTV
      • Health News today MDTV
      • Latest Videos MDTV
      • Latest Webinars MDTV
      • MD shorts MDTV
      • Medical News Today MDTV
      • Medico Legal Update MDTV
      • Top Videos MDTV
      • Health Perspectives MDTV
      • Journal Club MDTV
      • Medical Dialogues Show
This site is intended for healthcare professionals only
LoginRegister
Medical Dialogues
LoginRegister
  • Home
  • Medical news & Guidelines
    • Anesthesiology
    • Cardiology and CTVS
    • Critical Care
    • Dentistry
    • Dermatology
    • Diabetes and Endocrinology
    • ENT
    • Gastroenterology
    • Medicine
    • Nephrology
    • Neurology
    • Obstretics-Gynaecology
    • Oncology
    • Ophthalmology
    • Orthopaedics
    • Pediatrics-Neonatology
    • Psychiatry
    • Pulmonology
    • Radiology
    • Surgery
    • Urology
    • Laboratory Medicine
    • Diet
    • Nursing
    • Paramedical
    • Physiotherapy
  • Health news
    • Doctor News
    • Government Policies
    • Hospital & Diagnostics
    • International Health News
    • Medical Organization News
    • Medico Legal News
    • NBE News
    • NMC News
  • Fact Check
    • Bone Health Fact Check
    • Brain Health Fact Check
    • Cancer Related Fact Check
    • Child Care Fact Check
    • Dental and oral health fact check
    • Diabetes and metabolic health fact check
    • Diet and Nutrition Fact Check
    • Eye and ENT Care Fact Check
    • Fitness fact check
    • Gut health fact check
    • Heart health fact check
    • Kidney health fact check
    • Medical education fact check
    • Men's health fact check
    • Respiratory fact check
    • Skin and hair care fact check
    • Vaccine and Immunization fact check
    • Women's health fact check
  • AYUSH
    • Ayurveda
      • Ayurveda Giuidelines
      • Ayurveda News
    • Homeopathy
      • Homeopathy Guidelines
      • Homeopathy News
    • Siddha
      • Siddha Guidelines
      • Siddha News
    • Unani
      • Unani Guidelines
      • Unani News
    • Yoga
      • Yoga Guidelines
      • Yoga News
  • State News
    • Andaman and Nicobar Islands
    • Andhra Pradesh
    • Arunachal Pradesh
    • Assam
    • Bihar
    • Chandigarh
    • Chattisgarh
    • Dadra and Nagar Haveli
    • Daman and Diu
    • Delhi
    • Goa
    • Gujarat
    • Haryana
    • Himachal Pradesh
    • Jammu & Kashmir
    • Jharkhand
    • Karnataka
    • Kerala
    • Ladakh
    • Lakshadweep
    • Madhya Pradesh
    • Maharashtra
    • Manipur
    • Meghalaya
    • Mizoram
    • Nagaland
    • Odisha
    • Puducherry
    • Punjab
    • Rajasthan
    • Sikkim
    • Tamil Nadu
    • Telangana
    • Tripura
    • Uttar Pradesh
    • Uttrakhand
    • West Bengal
  • Medical Education
    • Ayush Education News
    • Dentistry Education News
    • Medical Admission News
    • Medical Colleges News
    • Medical Courses News
    • Medical Universities News
    • Nursing education News
    • Paramedical Education News
    • Study Abroad
  • Industry
    • Health Investment News
    • Health Startup News
    • Medical Devices News
    • Pharma News
      • CDSCO (Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation) News
    • Pharmacy Education News
    • Industry Perspective
  • Home
  • Gastroenterology
  • Gastroenterology News
  • Neural pathways...

Neural pathways connecting gut and brain linked to common gut disorders

Written By : Hina Zahid |Medically Reviewed By : Dr. Kamal Kant Kohli Published On 2020-05-19T02:00:26+05:30  |  Updated On 19 May 2020 2:00 AM IST
Neural pathways connecting gut and brain linked to common gut disorders
  • facebook
  • twitter
  • linkedin
  • whatsapp
  • Telegram
  • Email

PITTSBURGH -Different systems of the body are interconnected and cannot be completely understood in isolation. The brain-gut connection is one very important example of this phenomenon.

Gut and brain are connected physically through millions of nerves, most importantly the vagus nerve. The gut and gut microbiota also control inflammation and make many different compounds that can affect brain health.

Neuroscientists at the University of Pittsburgh Brain Institute have traced neural pathways that connect the brain to the stomach, providing a biological mechanism to explain how stress can foster ulcer development.

The findings, published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, build a scientific basis for the brain's influence over organ function and emphasize the importance of the brain-body connection.

Until now, research exploring the gut-brain interaction has largely focused on the influence of the gut and its microbiome on the brain. But it's not a one-way street -- the brain also influences stomach function.

"Pavlov demonstrated many years ago that the central nervous system uses environmental signals and past experience to generate anticipatory responses that promote efficient digestion," said Peter Strick, Ph.D., Brain Institute scientific director and chair of neurobiology at Pitt. "And we have long known that every increase in unemployment and its associated stress is accompanied by an increase in death rates from stomach ulcers."

To find brain regions that control the gut, Strick and his coauthor David Levinthal, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor of gastroenterology, hepatology and nutrition at Pitt, used a strain of rabies virus to track connections from the brain to the stomach.

After being injected into the stomach of a rat, the viral tracer made its way back to the brain by hopping from neuron to neuron -- using the same trick that rabies virus uses to infiltrate the brain after entering the body through a bite or scratch -- to reveal the brain areas that exert control over the stomach.

Strick and Levinthal found that the parasympathetic -- "rest and digest" -- nervous system pathways trace back from the stomach mostly to a brain region known as the rostral insula, which is responsible for visceral sensation and emotion regulation.

"The stomach sends sensory information to the cortex, which sends instructions back to the gut," Strick said. "That means our 'gut feelings' are constructed not only from signals derived from the stomach, but also from all the other influences on the rostral insula, such as past experiences and contextual knowledge."

In contrast, the sympathetic -- "fight or flight" -- pathways of the central nervous system, which kick in when we're stressed, predominantly trace back from the stomach to the primary motor cortex, which is the seat of voluntary control over the skeletal muscles that move the body around.

Identifying these neural pathways that connect the brain and stomach could provide new insights into common gut disorders.

For example, Helicobacter pylori infection typically triggers ulcer formation, but descending signals from the cerebral cortex could influence the bacteria's growth by adjusting gastric secretions to make the stomach more or less hospitable to invaders.

These insights also could change clinical gastroenterology practice. Knowing that the brain exerts physical control over the gut gives doctors a new way to approach bowel problems.

"Several common gut disorders, such as dyspepsia or irritable bowel syndrome, might not get better with current treatments," said Levinthal, who also is a gastroenterologist at UPMC. "Our results provide cortical targets that will be critical for developing new brain-based therapies that might be helpful for our patients."

For further reference log on to:

https://www.upmc.com/media/news/051820-pnas-brain-to-stomach

Source : Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Hina Zahid
Hina Zahid

    Hina Zahid Joined Medical Dialogue in 2017 with a passion to work as a Reporter. She coordinates with various national and international journals and association and covers all the stories related to Medical guidelines, Medical Journals, rare medical surgeries as well as all the updates in the medical field. Email: editorial@medicaldialogues.in. Contact no. 011-43720751

    Dr. Kamal Kant Kohli
    Dr. Kamal Kant Kohli

    Dr Kamal Kant Kohli-MBBS, DTCD- a chest specialist with more than 30 years of practice and a flair for writing clinical articles, Dr Kamal Kant Kohli joined Medical Dialogues as a Chief Editor of Medical News. Besides writing articles, as an editor, he proofreads and verifies all the medical content published on Medical Dialogues including those coming from journals, studies,medical conferences,guidelines etc. Email: drkohli@medicaldialogues.in. Contact no. 011-43720751

    Show Full Article
    Next Story

    Editorial

    Dapagliflozin Shines in Post-TAVI Patients:DAPA-TAVI Trial Findings

    Dapagliflozin Shines in Post-TAVI Patients:DAPA-TAVI Trial Findings

    Identifying Candidates for Aspirin in Primary Prevention: Men Aged 40-50 with Hypertension, Dyslipidemia, and Familial ASCVD Risk

    Identifying Candidates for Aspirin in Primary Prevention: Men Aged 40-50 with Hypertension,...

    Featured image representing thinking

    Is Pharma Marketing Going Through "Thinking Recession"?

    Beyond BMI: Why Pioglitazone Deserves a Place in Managing Thin-Fat Type 2 Diabetes in India

    Beyond BMI: Why Pioglitazone Deserves a Place in Managing 'Thin-Fat' Type 2 Diabetes in India

    How to Improve Adherence in Hypertensive Patients? Bridging the Gap with CONNECT Tool

    How to Improve Adherence in Hypertensive Patients? Bridging the Gap with CONNECT Tool

    View All

    Journal Club Today

    Sensitive Skin Explained: Signs, Triggers and Skincare Tips by Dr. Aparajita Lamba

    Sensitive Skin Explained: Signs, Triggers and Skincare Tips by Dr. Aparajita Lamba

    View All

    Health News Today

    Health Bulletin 5/July/ 2025

    Health Bulletin 5/July/ 2025

    View All
    © 2022 All Rights Reserved.
    Powered By: Hocalwire
    X
    We use cookies for analytics, advertising and to improve our site. You agree to our use of cookies by continuing to use our site. To know more, see our Cookie Policy and Cookie Settings.Ok