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Brainstem (The Brainstem and other Vagal Oddities)

The brainstem has long been known to monitor heart rate, breathing and aspects of taste.  Research has discovered that in response to injury, nerve cells in the brainstem sense inflammatory molecules and can upregulate or downregulate the same molecules to prevent infections from damaging healthy tissues.  In researchers’ assays for chemosensory receptors in tissues throughout the body, a cell type that kept popping up was a relatively rare, largely unstudied one called a tuft cell.  Scientists now theorize that a major role of these receptors is to monitor the molecules in our body, “tasting” and “smelling” them for any sign that they might be from a pathogen.

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