Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Foreword
- Preface
- List of abbreviations
- Introduction
- Part I The autonomic nervous system: functional anatomy and visceral afferents
- Part II Functional organization of the peripheral autonomic nervous system
- Chapter 3 The final autonomic pathway and its analysis
- Chapter 4 The peripheral sympathetic and parasympathetic pathways
- Chapter 5 The enteric nervous system
- Part III Transmission of signals in the peripheral autonomic nervous system
- Part IV Central representation of the autonomic nervous system in spinal cord, brain stem and hypothalamus
- References
- Index
Chapter 5 - The enteric nervous system
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 August 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Foreword
- Preface
- List of abbreviations
- Introduction
- Part I The autonomic nervous system: functional anatomy and visceral afferents
- Part II Functional organization of the peripheral autonomic nervous system
- Chapter 3 The final autonomic pathway and its analysis
- Chapter 4 The peripheral sympathetic and parasympathetic pathways
- Chapter 5 The enteric nervous system
- Part III Transmission of signals in the peripheral autonomic nervous system
- Part IV Central representation of the autonomic nervous system in spinal cord, brain stem and hypothalamus
- References
- Index
Summary
In his chapter “The sympathetic and related systems of nerves” in Schäfer's Textbook of Physiology (1900) Langley defined for the first time the idea that the gastrointestinal tract has a nervous system of its own. He called this system the enteric nervous system (Langley 1900). He repeated this idea in his short monograph in 1921 where he clearly described the division of the autonomic nervous system into three parts: sympathetic, parasympathetic and enteric nervous system. This classification is still used today (Langley 1921). The existence of the plexuses of Auerbach (plexus myentericus) and Meissner (plexus submucosus) has been known since the second half of the nineteenth century. Langley recognized that this system can act to a large extent independently of the central nervous system. He separated the myenteric and submucosal ganglia from the sympathetic (and parasympathetic) nervous system and classified them as a third autonomic nervous system for the following reasons: (1) they have a distinct histology compared to the histology of the paravertebral and prevertebral sympathetic ganglia; (2) it was unclear at that time whether they are connected with the central nervous system by sympathetic and parasympathetic neurons and (3) the sympathetic postganglionic fibers either send collaterals to or form synapses with the neurons of the enteric nervous system (Langley 1900). Up to about 1970 rather little or no attention was given to the enteric nervous system of the gastrointestinal tract; in fact this system was practically ignored.
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- Integrative Action of the Autonomic Nervous SystemNeurobiology of Homeostasis, pp. 168 - 208Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2006
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