Involvement of parasympathetic pelvic efferent pathway in psychological stress-induced defecation

Figure 2 Involvement of parasympathetic nerves in the bowel movement. A, B: Effects of rectal nerve transection (RNT) (A) and vagotomy (Vag) (B) on the colonic transit presented by geometric center of moved phenol red; C-F: Relative distribution of phenol red through the entire colon and rectum after water avoidance stress (WAS) in sham-operated rats (C, E), RNT-rats (D) and Vag-rats (F). Each value represents the mean of 6-8 rats. ^aP < 0.05, ^bP < 0.01 vs the response of sham stress rats; ^dP < 0.01 vs sham-operated (sham op) rats.