The Enteric Nervous System

Stuart Brierley is an NHMRC R.D Wright Biomedical Fellow and Head of the Visceral Pain Group, Discipline of Medicine, University of Adelaide located in the Centre for Nutrition and Gastrointestinal Diseases at the South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute (SAHMRI). Prof Brierley is an international authority on the different afferent classes innervating the gut, the mechanotransduction channels underlying their function, the interaction of these channels with inflammatory mediators, and how this changes in acute and chronic pain. Prof Brierley is the current South Australian State Representative of the Australasian Neuroscience Society, the Treasurer of the Australasian Neurogastroenterology and Motility Association (ANGMA) and a Node leader for the Adelaide Centre For Neuroscience Research. Marcello Costa was born in Turin, Italy, but migrated to Australia in 1970, where he became one of the founders of the new discipline of Neuroscience and the Australian Neuroscience Society (ANS), of which become President in the 1990s. He holds a personal chair in Neurophysiology at Flinders University, the first in Australia. He has published over 230 scientific papers in international journals, 55 reviews and chapters and written two books in enteric neuroscience and gastrointestinal motor functions. He was foundation co-chair of the the South Australian Neuroscience Institute (SANI) from 2003 to 2010. He is also active in the field of philosophy of science and education in neuroscience to university students and to the broader public.

Preface.- Memories and promises of the Enteric Nervous System and its functions.- A personal perspective on the development of our understanding of the myogenic control mechanisms of gut motor function.- Enteric inhibitory neurotransmission, starting down under.- Spatiotemporal Maps in motility research.- Development of neural activity in the Enteric Nervous System: Similarities and differences to other parts of the nervous system.- ENS development research since 1983: Great strides but many remaining challenges.- Extrinsic sensory innervation of the gut - structure and function.- Ageing and gastrointestinal sensory function.- Altered ion channel/receptor expression and function in extrinsic sensory neurons: The cause of and solution to chronic visceral pain?.- Purinergic signalling in the gut.- Is there a role for endogenous 5-HT in gastrointestinal motility? How recent studies have changed our understanding.- Enteric Neuropathies: Yesterday, today and tomorrow.- Postnatal development of the mouse enteric nervous system.- G protein-coupled receptor trafficking and signalling in the enteric nervous system: the past, present and future.- The intrinsic reflex circuitry of the inflamed colon.- Integrated Neural and Endocrine Control of Gastrointestinal Function.- Enteric Neurobiology: Discoveries and directions.- Advanced 3D optical microscopy in ENS research.- Excitability and synaptic transmission in the enteric nervous system: Does diet play a role?.- Recording in vivo human colonic motility - what have we learnt over the past 100 years?.- Index.