A new Yale study reveals that major organ systems in the body aren't just passive structures operating on directions from command central - aka the brain - but instead are active participants in controlling their own functions.
Writing in the journal Nature, a team of researchers led by Yale's Rui Chang demonstrates how organs develop and maintain their own neural circuitry, which in turn communicates with the brain in a sort of two-way conversation.
The findings provide a new understanding of how the body and brain communicate via networks of neurons embedded inside organs that constitute a mini nervous system, called "organ intrinsic nervous systems," which help control critical functions such as digestion, heart rhythm, breathing, insulin secretion, and immune responses, the researchers say.
They also suggest that problems in these mini, organ-based nervous systems may contribute to diseases such as Parkinson's disease, autonomic disorders, and inflammatory illnesses.
"This study helps us understand how different organs build their own nervous systems to facilitate communication with the brain," said Chang, associate professor of neuroscience and of cellular and molecular physiology at Yale School of Medicine (YSM) and lead author of the study. "To perform a specific function, an organ needs to have its own anatomical basis and its own molecular basis. This study describes how the organ shapes its own nervous system to achieve that goal."
