Multimodal Reorganization of Gut--Brain Physiology During the Cephalic Phase of Digestion

Food-related cues in healthy adults increase gastric myoelectric activity and swallow/heart rate while shifting cortical oscillations, and anticipation strengthens brain–stomach coupling as within-network synchronization decreases.

• Why it matters: Non-invasive characterization of cholinergic vagal signaling dynamics in humans is limited, and the cephalic phase may reveal how anticipatory gut–brain communication is organized.
• What they did: Healthy adults underwent simultaneous recordings of cortical activity, gastric myoelectric signals, cardiac measures, and swallow physiology during food anticipation and ingestion, with frequency-specific cortical changes analyzed alongside coordination metrics.
• The result: Anticipatory coordination largely returned toward baseline after ingestion; gastric activity tracked subjective appetite, cortical activity tracked craving, and both independently explained variation in self-reported craving.

AI summary of the abstract · may contain errors · not medical advice · read the paper.