Abstract

Our current knowledge of motor and sensory functions in the human gut is critically reviewed, showing how the two may interact to produce symptoms in patients with functional gastrointestinal disorders. A local stimulus is necessary to activate the pathogenetic symptom generation process, and in many patients abnormal pooling of gas at various or extensive sites in the bowel and focal gut distension may provide the local stimulus, compounded by spatial summation phenomena and conscious visceral hypersensitivity. The interplay of these mechanisms results in the clinical expression of symptoms.