Vagal gastric relaxation in the dog.

Experiments were performed on anaesthetized dogs. Vagotomy was followed by an increase of gastric tone. The phasic responses of gastric tone to efferent vagal electrical stimulation were not separable in these experiments as they are in cats. Oesophageal distension, however, produced a marked gastric relaxatory response, which, as in cats, was non-cholinergic and non-adrenergic but abolished by vagotomy. This response is suggested to be equivalent to physiological receptive relaxation of the stomach, occurring during food intake.