Neurogastroenterology--information processing from the viscera to the brain in humans.

With the many new investigational possibilities allowing access to the gut-brain axis in humans, new techniques, mainly from neurology, as well as interdisciplinary approaches, have produced insights into afferent information processing from the gut to the brain. They have become research tools in recent years, but will eventually become clinical tools for diagnostic purposes in the future. Gut-brain interactions may be seen at different levels: rather simple research models such as recordable perception and pain, on the one hand, can be contrasted and/or supplemented with neurological stimulation and imaging techniques, and clinical models such as spinal cord injury. All have contributed to the development of a new subspecialty in medicine, neurogastroenterology.