Depression, Depressionen

Vagus Nerve Anatomy:

Traditionally the vagus nerve has been considered a parasympathetic efferent nerve (controlling and regulating autonomie functions such as heart rate and gastric tone); however, the vagus (cranial nerve X) is actually a mixed nerve composed of about 80% afferent sensory fibers carrying information to the brain from the head, neck, thorax, and abdomen (Foley and DuBois 1937). The sensory afferent cell bodies of the vagus reside in the nodose ganglion and relay information to the NTS. These fibers are different from those that go to the other motor nuclei of the vagus (Figure 1).

Figure 1. This cross-sectional view of the brainstem illustrates the origins of several components of the vagus nerve, a rnixed sensory and motor nerve. Efferent motor fibers originate in the dorsal nucleus of the vagus, whereas afferent motor fibers go to the nucleus ambiguous. Afferent sensory fibers, which make up 80% of the left vagus, terminate in the nucleus of the solitary tract, which then projects to the midline raphe and locus and likely is the path by which vagus nerve stimulation has antiseizure and other neuropsychiatric effects.