Spatio-temporal mapping and the enteric nervous system

Abstract

Study of the enteric nervous system (ENS) is somewhat less glamorous than other body systems but offers a unique opportunity to study the sensory, interneuronal and motor outputs of a highly developed neural network in the same tissue. This has not been a trivial task, and even after a century, we still struggle to understand both the simple (e.g. reflexes) and complex (e.g. MMCs) behaviors the gut produces. On top of that, other control networks (such as ICC) that are integrated with ENS at varying levels, can modify ENS activity directly or indirectly. While many of the methods used to study the ENS were originally developed in other systems (e.g. brain/heart), a few were spawned “in the offal” so to speak, due to the unique characteristics of the gut. The brief perspective below outlines how spatio-temporal maps (ST Maps) originated and continue to flourish in GI research as a tool to describe and analyze the complexity of GI movements. I apologize that I am not able to specifically mention all the people involved in the development and use of ST Maps in enteric/motility research due to space constraints (GWH, July 2014).