Does the vagus nerve mediate the sixth sense?

Abstract

Can sensations originating from the internal environment modulate attitude and behaviour? Can the feedback about the operation of the viscera provide a calming and relaxing influence? Information from the chest and abdomen is delivered continuously by the vagus nerve, the largest visceral sensory nerve in the body. Because various 'stress-related' diseases can be associated with impaired functions in sensory vagal fibres, a better understanding of how sensory vagal information is processed in the CNS might offer new strategies for the treatment and/or prevention of several disorders, including 'drug-resistant' forms of eating disorder, anxiety, chronic depression and epilepsy. A neuronal circuitry that has been suggested by experimental data to mediate sensory vagal inputs to those brain areas that are involved in the generation of 'stress-related' disorders is outlined.