The team that first recorded vagus nerve signals in humans has now isolated the electrical activity of individual neurons responsible for cardiovascular regulation. Published in the Journal of Physiology , the Monash University-led discovery paves the way for more research into how and why cardiovascular disease develops. Monash University's Professor Vaughan Macefield was the first to record electrical signals from the vagus nerve in awake humans in 2020.
Before that, our understanding of the physiology of this nerve—which supplies the heart , airways and other organs within the thorax and abdomen—came entirely from animal work. Now, in another first, researchers from the Human Autonomic Neurophysiology Laboratory in Monash's School of Translational Medicine have isolated the activity of individual neurons within the vagus nerve . By looking specifically for neurons that fire in sync with the heartbeat, they could then identify those that are responsible for cardiovascular regulation.
"We have managed to isolate the activity of individual vagal neurons and identified those that are responsible for either informing the brain about cardiovascular function (afferent neurons) or controlling the rate of the heart beat (efferent neurons)," first author Dr. David Farmer said. The vagus nerves contain neurons that are crucial for the brain's ability to monitor organ function, as well as neurons that directly control organ function.
This includes neurons that monitor or modify he.