Australian researchers found out how the enteral nervous system, also known as the “second brain,” makes it move in a colon one. The article of scientists has been published in the Communications Biology magazine.
Enteral nervous system is part of the autonomous nervous system, which coordinates the operation of the gastrointestinal tract. It includes two large nervous plexuses consisting of both motor and sensory neurons. At the same time, still remained a secret, as and when these neurons work during food.
Researchers were able to fix the electrical activity of smooth muscles along the entire length of the colon of mice and correlate it with the changes in the diameter of the organ. Scientists have disclosed a new mechanism that explains how the various types of the “Second Brain” motor neurons – exciting and braking – coordinate their activation to ensure the passage of food in the colon.
As a result, it turns out to be done by the contour of the intermediate neurons common for them, which is activated with a certain sequence at a certain frequency. “The same neural circuit was activated both during pushing and during non-drawing cuts,” said the leader of the University of Flinders Nick Spencer.