3 ms·

This headline is so wrong. The vagus nerve has been known about for thousands of years: http://www.acnr.co.uk/2017/09/naming-the-cranial-nerves-a-historical-not

• jessriedel 8y ago
  I don't think they're talking about the vagus nerve, but rather some neuron-like components of enteroendocrine cells in the gut that allow a faster connection between those enteroendocrine cells and the brain (which of course travels through the vagus nerve). > Enteroendocrine cells, which stud the lining of the gut and produce hormones that spur digestion and suppress hunger, had footlike protrusions that resemble the synapses neurons use to communicate with each other. Bohórquez knew the enteroendocrine cells could send hormonal messages to the central nervous system, but he also wondered whether they could “talk” to the brain using electrical signals, the way that neurons do. If so, they would have to send the signals through the vagus nerve, which travels from the gut to the brain stem. In other words, just because the vagus nerve innervates the small intestines on the macroscopic scale does not mean enteroendocrine cells have a complete electrical connection to the brain on the microscopic scale.