ReviewActa physiologica (Oxford, England)2020
To learn, to remember, to forget-How smart is the gut?
Review in Acta physiologica (Oxford, England), 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 19 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
19 citing papers in PubMed, 35 citations in OpenAlex.
- Prenatal Stress, Enteric Nervous System Development, and the Microbiota-Gut-Brain Axis: A Hypothesis-Generating Framework for Irritable Bowel Syndrome and Fibromyalgia.International journal of molecular sciences · 2026Review
- Fundamentals of Neurogastroenterology: Basic Science.Gastroenterology · 2026Review
- Probiotics as Modulators of Adult Neurogenesis and Synaptic Plasticity: New Perspectives in the Pathophysiology and Treatment of Affective Disorders.Biomedicines · 2026Review
- Comparative Analysis of Gastrointestinal Morphology and Enteric Nervous System Organization in Mallard, Tufted Duck, and Green-Winged Teal.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2025Article
- Body surface gastric mapping facilitates the management of pediatric disorders of gut-brain interaction.Therapeutic advances in gastroenterology · 2025Review
- Dynamic brain-heart-gut coupling during sleep: a continuous physiological signal analysis.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2025Article
- Building a Neurogastroenterology Unit: Why, Where, and How?Visceral medicine · 2024Review
- Long-Term Implicit Epigenetic Stress Information in the Enteric Nervous System and its Contribution to Developing and Perpetuating IBS.Current neuropharmacology · 2024Review
- Interstitial Cells of Cajal and Enteric Nervous System in Gastrointestinal and Neurological Pathology, Relation to Oxidative Stress.Current issues in molecular biology · 2023Review
- The enteric nervous system.Physiological reviews · 2023Review
- Minding the gut: extending embodied cognition and perception to the gut complex.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2023Article
- Review
- Gut markers of bodily self-consciousness in men.iScience · 2022Article
- Neuroimmune Interaction: A Widespread Mutual Regulation and the Weapons for Barrier Organs.Frontiers in cell and developmental biology · 2022Review
- Gut Serotonin as a General Membrane Permeability Regulator.Current neuropharmacology · 2022Article
- Associative learning and extinction of conditioned threat predictors across sensory modalities.Communications biology · 2021Article
- Food, microbes, sex and old age: on the plasticity of gastrointestinal innervation.Current opinion in neurobiology · 2020Review
- Enteric synucleinopathy: from trendy concept to real entity.Free neuropathology · 2020Article
- The thoughtful bowel.Acta physiologica (Oxford, England) · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
- Commented on by
Authors and funding
3 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
The enteric nervous system (ENS) resides within the gut wall and autonomously controls gut functions through coordinated activation of sensory, inter and motor neurons. Its activity is modulated by the enteric immune and endocrine system as well as by afferent and efferent nerves of the parasympathetic and sympathetic nervous system. The ENS is often referred to as the second brain and hence is able to perform sophisticated tasks. We review the evidence that the "smartness" of the ENS may even extend to its ability to learn and to memorize. Examples for habituation, sensitization, conditioned behaviour and long-term facilitation are evidence for various forms of implicit learning. Moreover, we discuss how this may change not only basic Neurogastroenterology but also our understanding of development of gut diseases and chronic disorders in gut functions. At the same time, we identify open questions and future challenges to confirm learning, memory and memory deficits in the gut. Despite some remaining experimental challenges, we are convinced that the gut is able to learn and are tempted to answer the question with: Yes, the gut is smart.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.