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Vagal Response
Reflex syncope is a brief loss of consciousness due to a neurologically induced drop in blood pressure and/or a decrease in heart rate. Before an affected person passes out, there may be sweating, a decreased ability to see, or ringing in the ears. Occasionally, the person may twitch while unconscious. Complications of reflex syncope include injury due to a fall. Reflex syncope is divided into three types: vasovagal, situational, and carotid sinus. Vasovagal syncope is typically triggered by seeing blood, pain, emotional stress, or prolonged standing. Situational syncope is often triggered by urination, swallowing, or coughing. Carotid sinus syncope is due to pressure on the carotid sinus in the neck. The underlying mechanism involves the nervous system slowing the heart rate and dilating blood vessels, resulting in low blood pressure and thus not enough blood flow to the brain. Diagnosis is based on the symptoms after ruling out other possible causes. Recovery from a ...
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Vagus Nerve
The vagus nerve, also known as the tenth cranial nerve (CN X), plays a crucial role in the autonomic nervous system, which is responsible for regulating involuntary functions within the human body. This nerve carries both sensory and motor fibers and serves as a major pathway that connects the brain to various organs, including the heart, lungs, and digestive tract. As a key part of the parasympathetic nervous system, the vagus nerve helps regulate essential involuntary functions like heart rate, breathing, and digestion. By controlling these processes, the vagus nerve contributes to the body's "rest and digest" response, helping to calm the body after stress, lower heart rate, improve digestion, and maintain homeostasis. The vagus nerve consists of two branches: the right and left vagus nerves. In the neck, the right vagus nerve contains approximately 105,000 fibers, while the left vagus nerve has about 87,000 fibers, according to one source. However, other sources report sl ...
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Urination
Urination is the release of urine from the bladder through the urethra in Placentalia, placental mammals, or through the cloaca in other vertebrates. It is the urinary system's form of excretion. It is also known medically as micturition, voiding, uresis, or, rarely, emiction, and known colloquially by various names including peeing, weeing, pissing, and euphemistically number one. The process of urination is under voluntary control in healthy humans and #Animals, other animals, but may occur as a reflex in infants, some elderly individuals, and those with neurological injury. It is normal for adult humans to urinate up to seven times during the day. In some animals, in addition to expelling waste material, urination #Other animals, can mark territory or express submissiveness. Physiologically, urination involves coordination between the central nervous system, central, autonomic nervous system, autonomic, and somatic nervous systems. Brain centres that regulate urination in ...
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Brainstem
The brainstem (or brain stem) is the posterior stalk-like part of the brain that connects the cerebrum with the spinal cord. In the human brain the brainstem is composed of the midbrain, the pons, and the medulla oblongata. The midbrain is continuous with the thalamus of the diencephalon through the tentorial notch, and sometimes the diencephalon is included in the brainstem. The brainstem is very small, making up around only 2.6 percent of the brain's total weight. It has the critical roles of regulating heart and respiratory system, respiratory function, helping to control heart rate and breathing rate. It also provides the main motor and sensory nerve supply to the face and neck via the cranial nerves. Ten pairs of cranial nerves come from the brainstem. Other roles include the regulation of the central nervous system and the body's sleep cycle. It is also of prime importance in the conveyance of motor and sensory pathways from the rest of the brain to the body, and from the b ...
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Nucleus Tractus Solitarii
The solitary nucleus (SN) (nucleus of the solitary tract, nucleus solitarius, or nucleus tractus solitarii) is a series of neurons whose cell bodies form a roughly vertical column of grey matter in the medulla oblongata of the brainstem. Their axons form the bulk of the enclosed solitary tract. The solitary nucleus can be divided into different parts including dorsomedial, dorsolateral, and ventrolateral subnuclei. The solitary nucleus receives general visceral and special visceral inputs from the facial nerve (CN VII), glossopharyngeal nerve (CN IX) and vagus nerve (CN X); it receives and relays stimuli related to taste and visceral sensation. It sends outputs to various parts of the brain, such as the hypothalamus, thalamus, and reticular formation, forming circuits that contribute to autonomic regulation. Cells along the length of the SN are arranged roughly in accordance with function; for instance, cells involved in taste are located in the rostral part, while those rec ...
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Micturition Syncope
Micturition syncope or post-micturition syncope is the name given to the human phenomenon of fainting shortly after or during urination. The underlying cause is not fully understood, but it may be a result of vasovagal response, postural hypotension, or a combination thereof. People often become pale, lightheaded, nauseated, sweaty and weak before they lose consciousness. Sometimes defecating, coughing, or severe vomiting may cause fainting in a similar way. Causes When one strains to increase the flow of urine, it stimulates the vagus nerve (usually more pronounced in elderly men with large prostates). The vagus nerve stimulus causes slowing down of the heart (bradycardia) and a drop in blood pressure. The heart cannot perform effectively as a pump because insufficient blood comes to it. It can be associated with a very rare tumour known as a paraprostatic pheochromocytoma within the urinary bladder. Treatment There is no specific treatment for micturition syncope. General ...
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Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation
Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) is a noninvasive neurostimulation technique in which a changing magnetic field is used to induce an electric current in a targeted area of the brain through electromagnetic induction. A device called a stimulator generates electric pulses that are delivered to a magnetic coil placed against the scalp. The resulting magnetic field penetrates the skull and induces a secondary electric current in the underlying brain tissue, modulating neural activity. Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) is a safe, effective, and FDA-approved treatment for major depressive disorder (approved in 2008), chronic pain (2013), and obsessive-compulsive disorder (2018). It has strong evidence for certain neurological and psychiatric conditions—especially depression (with a large effect size), neuropathic pain, and stroke recovery—and emerging advancements like iTBS and image-guided targeting may improve its efficacy and efficiency. A ...
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Fear Of Needles
Fear of needles, known in medical literature as needle phobia, is the extreme fear of medical procedures involving injections or hypodermic needles. It is occasionally referred to as '' aichmophobia'', although this term may also refer to a more general fear of sharply pointed objects. Overview and incidence The condition was officially recognized in 1994 in the DSM-IV (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th edition) as a specific phobia of blood-injection-injury type phobia (BII phobia). Phobic level responses to injections cause sufferers to avoid inoculations, blood tests, and in the more severe cases, all medical care. It is estimated that at least 10% of American adults experience some level of fear of needles, and it is likely that the actual number is larger, as the most severe cases are never documented due to the tendency of the sufferer to avoid all medical treatment. The diagnosis criteria for BII phobias are stricter, with an estimated 3-4% prev ...
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Blood Phobia
Blood is a body fluid in the circulatory system of humans and other vertebrates that delivers necessary substances such as nutrients and oxygen to the cells, and transports metabolic waste products away from those same cells. Blood is composed of blood cells suspended in blood plasma. Plasma, which constitutes 55% of blood fluid, is mostly water (92% by volume), and contains proteins, glucose, mineral ions, and hormones. The blood cells are mainly red blood cells (erythrocytes), white blood cells (leukocytes), and (in mammals) platelets (thrombocytes). The most abundant cells are red blood cells. These contain hemoglobin, which facilitates oxygen transport by reversibly binding to it, increasing its solubility. Jawed vertebrates have an adaptive immune system, based largely on white blood cells. White blood cells help to resist infections and parasites. Platelets are important in the clotting of blood. Blood is circulated around the body through blood vessels by the p ...
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Autonomic Nervous System
The autonomic nervous system (ANS), sometimes called the visceral nervous system and formerly the vegetative nervous system, is a division of the nervous system that operates viscera, internal organs, smooth muscle and glands. The autonomic nervous system is a control system that acts largely unconsciously and regulates bodily functions, such as the heart rate, its Myocardial contractility, force of contraction, digestion, respiratory rate, pupillary dilation, pupillary response, Micturition, urination, and Animal sexual behaviour, sexual arousal. The fight-or-flight response, also known as the acute stress response, is set into action by the autonomic nervous system. The autonomic nervous system is regulated by integrated reflexes through the brainstem to the spinal cord and organ (anatomy), organs. Autonomic functions include control of respiration, heart rate, cardiac regulation (the cardiac control center), vasomotor activity (the vasomotor center), and certain reflex, reflex ...
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Epileptic Seizure
A seizure is a sudden, brief disruption of brain activity caused by abnormal, excessive, or synchronous neuronal firing. Depending on the regions of the brain involved, seizures can lead to changes in movement, sensation, behavior, awareness, or consciousness. Symptoms vary widely. Some seizures involve subtle changes, such as brief lapses in attention or awareness (as seen in absence seizures), while others cause generalized convulsions with loss of consciousness ( tonic–clonic seizures). Most seizures last less than two minutes and are followed by a postictal period of confusion, fatigue, or other symptoms. A seizure lasting longer than five minutes is a medical emergency known as status epilepticus. Seizures are classified as provoked, when triggered by a known cause such as fever, head trauma, or metabolic imbalance, or unprovoked, when no immediate trigger is identified. Recurrent unprovoked seizures define the neurological condition epilepsy. Clinical features Seizure ...
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Lightheadedness
Lightheadedness is a common and typically unpleasant sensation of dizziness or a feeling that one may faint. The sensation of lightheadedness can be short-lived, prolonged, or, rarely, recurring. In addition to dizziness, the individual may feel as though their head is weightless. The individual may also feel as though the room is "spinning" or moving (vertigo). Most causes of lightheadedness are not serious and either cure themselves quickly or are easily treated. Keeping a sense of balance requires the brain to process a variety of information received from the eyes, the nervous system, and the inner ears. If the brain is unable to process these signals, such as when the messages are contradictory, or if the sensory systems are improperly functioning, an individual may experience lightheadedness or dizziness. Lightheadedness is very similar to pre-syncope. Pre-syncope is the immediate stage before syncope (fainting), particularly in cases of temporary visual field loss (i.e. ...
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Syncope (medicine)
Syncope , commonly known as fainting or passing out, is a loss of consciousness and muscle strength characterized by a fast onset, short duration, and spontaneous recovery. It is caused by a decrease in blood flow to the brain, typically from low blood pressure. There are sometimes symptoms before the loss of consciousness such as lightheadedness, sweating, pale skin, blurred vision, nausea, vomiting, or feeling warm. Syncope may also be associated with a short episode of muscle twitching. Psychiatric causes can also be determined when a patient experiences fear, anxiety, or panic; particularly before a stressful event, usually medical in nature. When consciousness and muscle strength are not completely lost, it is called presyncope. It is recommended that presyncope be treated the same as syncope. Causes range from non-serious to potentially fatal. There are three broad categories of causes: heart or blood vessel related; reflex, also known as neurally mediated; and ...
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