Functional and chemical anatomy of the afferent vagal system

HR Berthoud, WL Neuhuber - Autonomic Neuroscience, 2000 - Elsevier
The results of neural tracing studies suggest that vagal afferent fibers in cervical and thoracic
branches innervate the esophagus, lower airways, heart, aorta, and possibly the thymus,
and via abdominal branches the entire gastrointestinal tract, liver, portal vein, billiary system,
pancreas, but not the spleen. In addition, vagal afferents innervate numerous thoracic and
abdominal paraganglia associated with the vagus nerves. Specific terminal structures such
as flower basket terminals, intraganglionic laminar endings and intramuscular arrays have …