Does vagus nerve constitute a self-organization complexity or a "hidden network"?

Abstract

The vagus nerve provides wide visceromotor and viscerosensory innervation of internal organs. Findings accumulated in last years suggest that vagus nerve participates on regulation of much wider spectrum of functions than described previously. Many different studies provide plausible evidence that vagus nerve importantly participates not only in transmission of information from inflamed tissues, but also in efferent modulation of inflammatory processes. Moreover, there are some findings supporting the hypothesis that vagus nerve might participates in monitoring and modulation of tumorigenesis. Electrical stimulation of the vagus nerve is used as a treatment of epilepsy. Moreover, data also suggest a beneficial effect of electrical stimulation of the vagus nerve in patients with depression, anxiety, migraine and Alzheimer's disease. We suggest, that the vagus nerve might constitute a highly differentiated complex system which modulates various functions. Moreover, we propose that the vagus nerve as a complex system might participate in constitution of a biological compartment of conscious. In this article we discuss findings and ideas supporting these hypotheses (Ref. 73).