Somatovisceral reflex

In experimental animals, both noxious and innocuous stimulation of somatic afferents have been shown to evoke reflex changes in sympathetic efferent activity and, thereby, effector organ function. These phenomena have been demonstrated in such sites as the gastrointestinal tract, urinary bladder, adrenal medulla, lymphatic tissues, heart and vessels of the brain and peripheral nerves. Most often, reflexes have been elicited experimentally by stimulation of cutaneous afferents, although some work has also been conducted on muscle and articular afferents, including those of spinal tissues...

The effects of mechanical stimulation of the spine on blood pressure, heart rate and the activity of selected sympathetic nerves (renal and adrenal) were examined in alpha-chloralose/urethane anesthetized rats. Spinal segments from T10 to T13 or from L4 to L7 were isolated from surrounding muscle and the upper and lower segments of the four segment units were fixed by means of spinal clamps. Forces from 0.5 to 3.0 kg were applied to the lateral aspect of the two mobile segments. Stimulations of the thoracic or the lumbar region produced large decreases in blood pressure (-29...

Our objective was to elicit and characterize somatogastric reflexes in healthy humans. Sustained somatic stimulation by transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) was applied to the skin of human volunteers while simultaneously monitoring their upper gastrointestinal phasic pressure activity, extraintestinal vasomotor indices, and plasma levels of putative humoral mediators of autonomic reflexes. Stimuli were applied either to the hand (C8-T1) or to the upper abdomen (T5-T10) to determine whether impulses at these two dermatomes produce different effects on fed antral phasic pressure activity...

The effects of passive movements of normal and inflamed knee joints on unitary activity in filaments of the inferior cardiac nerve (ICN) were studied in cats anesthetized with chloralose and urethane. The effects were compared with those obtained by electrical stimulation of afferent A- and C-fibers in the medial articular nerve, in muscle and in cutaneous hind limb nerves. The vagus nerves were cut and the right carotid artery was tied off. The left carotid sinus was intact. All ICN units used in this study displayed spontaneous activity which was usually related to the cardiac and respiratory rhythms...

This study used the retrograde transport of a protein-gold complex to examine the distribution of spinal cord and trigeminal nucleus caudalis neurons that project to the nucleus of the solitary tract (NST) in the rat. In the spinal grey matter, retrogradely labeled cells were common in the marginal zone (lamina I), in the lateral spinal nucleus of the dorsolateral funiculus, in the reticular part of the neck of the dorsal horn (lamina V), around the central canal (lamina X), and in the region of the thoracic and sacral autonomic cell columns...

200 years have gone by since the autonomic disturbance in diabetes mellitus has been described for the first time ever. There is a great deal of information on the close relationship between somatic and visceral symptoms in diabetic polyneuropathy (PNP), so that there should be talked about only of one form of manifestations within the meaning of a distal symmetric somatovisceral PNP. The longer fibres such as the vagal fibres of the viscus, sympathetic fibres of the eye are affected at first and more intensively in the autonomic region same as in the sensory and motor region...

The relationship between a cervical chiropractic adjustment, in subluxated vs. unsubluxated subjects, and autonomic response monitored as change in pupillary diameter was evaluated in 15 subjects. The results indicate that: a) a successful adjustment elicits either a parasympathetic or sympathetic response; b) the vertebral level at which the adjustment is administered has undetectable specificity for the parasympathetic or sympathetic input to the pupil; c) unsubluxated subjects generally exhibit no change in pupillary diameter following a sham adjustment and d) subluxated subjects exhibit variable preadjustment pupillary diameters, with significant pupillary diameter changes in response to an adjustment...

The effects of a soft tissue mobilization procedure, the Rolfing pelvic lift, on parasympathetic tone was studied in healthy adult men. Parasympathetic tone was assessed 1) by quantifying the amplitude of the respiratory sinus arrhythmia from the heart rate pattern and 2) by measuring heart rate. Heart rate patterns were assessed during the pelvic lift and during the durational touch and baseline control conditions. Two groups of healthy subjects were tested: Group 1 contained 20 subjects aged 26 to 41 years, and Group 2 contained 10 subjects aged 55 to 68 years...

This report analyzes the clinical and physiological evidence supporting a role for altered visceral afferent mechanisms in the pathogenesis of two functional bowel syndromes: noncardiac chest pain and the irritable bowel syndrome. Considerable recent evidence indicates that increased contractility is present only in a minority of patients and that hypercontractile episodes are not temporally related to abdominal pain. In contrast, altered sensation and motor reflexes in response to physiological stimuli, such as mechanical distention or acid, is common when appropriately investigated...

Thirty-nine hospital outpatients with upper abdominal pain without demonstrable organic abdominal abnormalities and 28 healthy controls were compared blindly with regard to back pain and back abnormalities when subjected to a standardized physical examination of the spine. Seventy-two per cent of the patients versus 17% of the controls were troubled with back pain (P less than 0.001). Seventy-five per cent of the patients with back pain actually had abnormalities revealed at the physical examination, indicating that some organic mechanisms are involved in back pain...

Laparotomy significantly attenuates ethanol-induced gastric mucosal lesions in the rat. The effects of sensory denervation by capsaicin, indomethacin, atropine, guanethidine, and hexamethonium on laparotomy-induced protection were studied in the rat. Gastric mucosal injury was induced by the intragastric instillation of 1 mL of 75% ethanol. The laparotomy-induced protection against ethanol injury was abolished by sensory denervation by capsaicin (total dose, 125 mg/kg, SC) and also by pretreatment with indomethacin (5 mg/kg, SC)...

This paper studies somatovisceral reflex responses in the cardiovascular organ, gastrointestinal tract, urinary bladder and adrenal medulla in anesthetized animals after eliminating emotional factors following somatic sensory stimulations. Various somatic sensory stimulations, including cutaneous, muscle and articular sensory stimulations, can produce differing autonomic reflex responses, depending on which visceral organs and somatic afferents are stimulated. Some responses have dominant sympathetic efferent involvement, whereas others have dominant parasympathetic efferent involvement...

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Reflexes concerned with viscerosomatic and somatovisceral interplay in the sacral spinal cord were evaluated in spinalized animals, as part of a study on direct spinal cord stimulation of micturition. Urodynamic evaluation consisted of continuous recording of bladder pressure, urethral pressures and electromyograms of striated anal and urethral sphincters. All exteroceptive stimuli to urethral or anal mucosa caused an inappropriate increase in afferent input to the sacral micturition center: such stimuli should be avoided in the evaluation of suprasacral lesions of bladder innervation...