Visceral Functions of the Nervous System

Abstract

It is interesting to recall that some forty years ago Sherrington (1) included a description of spinal visceral reflexes in a chapter on "The Spinal Cord" which he contributed to Schafer's Text Book of Physiology. In the course of the article he drew attention to the fact that after destruction of the higher nerve centres, e.g. brain, the competence remaining to the spinal centres is found great�st for visceral reactions. From this point of view the visceral reflexes present the most per fect reactions of the spinal animal. The bulbo-spinal animal, receiving as it does the afferent impulses of the vagus as well as of the thoracic and sacral nerves, may indeed be considered as regards visceral function a fairly perfect animal. The purely spinal animal does, however, exhibit some amount of damage to the nervous regulation of its viscera; this is chiefly of the nature of "shock" and temporary.Magoun (2) rightly points out that "the full role of the auto nomic syst�m in the integration of bodily processes is only exerted through the action of essential supranuclear centres in the medulla, hypothalamus, and cerebral cortex." It should be emphasized, however, that the vis � era, though dependent on the nervous sys tem for the integration of reactions and necessary adjustments, are capable of independent function after section of the extrinsic nerves.It is intended to include in this chapter studies on the represen tation of the sympathetic and parasympathetic systems in the cerebral cortex, hypothalamus, medulla, and the s pinal cord, to gether with investigations on the autonomic nerves in their more general aspects. Papers concerned with the problem of visceral sensation, including referred pain, will also be discussed, and refer ence will be made to the viscerosomatic and somaticovisceral re flexes which seem logically to belong to this section. CENTRES Cerebral cortex.-Few papers describing the influence of the cortex on the discharge of impulses by way of the autonomic nerv ous system have appeared during the year.365 Annu. Rev. Physiol. 1944.6:365-390. Downloaded from www.annualreviews.org Access provided by University of Bath on 02/04/15. For personal use only. Quick links to online content Further ANNUAL REVIEWS

Visceral pain

“…Afferent fibres innervating viscera project to the CNS through autonomic sympathetic and parasympathetic nerves - a dual sensory innervation (18, 19). Some spinal afferents travel along hypogastric, lumbar colonic and splanchnic nerves to terminate in thoracolumbar regions as part of sympathetic innervation, traversing both prevertebral and paravertebral ganglia en route to the spinal cord (20).…”

Dor visceral em pós-operatório complicado de cirurgia urológica: relato de caso

“…However, features different from renal colic, such as the absence of pain paroxysm and the presence of heavy pain may confuse the anatomic origin of pain. This confusion is due to the fact that afferent fibers innervating different viscera are projected to the CNS through sympathetic and parasympathetic autonomic nervous system nerves 3,4 . Some of these spinal afferents are integrated to hypogastric, lumbar colonic and splancnic nerves in such a way that they end in the thoraco-lumbar region as integral part of sympathetic innervations, crossing pre and paravertebral ganglia toward the spinal cord 5 .…”