Related Experiment Video
Updated: Oct 2, 2026

Real-time Analysis of Gut-brain Neural Communication: Cortex wide Calcium Dynamics in Response to Intestinal Glucose Stimulation
Published on: December 29, 2023
Within-meal gut feedback signaling
T H Moran1, E E Ladenheim, G J Schwartz
1Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland 21205, USA. tmoran@jhmi.edu
Abstract:
During a meal, multiple gastrointestinal sites are stimulated by ingested nutrients and their digestion products, initiating local gastrointestinal actions and producing a variety of potential feedback signals that can contribute to meal termination. During ingestion, gastric emptying is rapid, allowing a significant portion of ingested nutrients to enter the intestine. Gastric and duodenal vagal afferent fibers increase their electrophysiological activity in relation to the mechanical presence of ingested nutrients. On reaching the duodenum, nutrients also activate vagal chemosensitive elements and stimulate the release of a variety of brain gut peptides including cholecystokinin (CCK). CCK also activates vagal afferent fibers directly and modifies the response properties of vagal mechanosensitive fibers to gastric and duodenal loads. Blocking or eliminating these feedback signals results in increased meal size demonstrating their role in meal termination.
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