Function
The ENS is capable of autonomous functions such as the coordination of reflexes; although it receives considerable innervation from the autonomic nervous system, it can and does operate independently of the brain and the spinal cord. Its study is the focus of neurogastroenterology.
ENS function can be damaged by ischemia. Transplantation, which had been described as a theoretical possibility in earlier versions of this article, is now (2011) a clinical reality in the United States and is performed at a number of approved centers.
Read more about this topic: Enteric Nervous System
Famous quotes containing the word function:
“Philosophical questions are not by their nature insoluble. They are, indeed, radically different from scientific questions, because they concern the implications and other interrelations of ideas, not the order of physical events; their answers are interpretations instead of factual reports, and their function is to increase not our knowledge of nature, but our understanding of what we know.”
—Susanne K. Langer (1895–1985)
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—Clarence Lewis (1883–1964)
“... the function of art is to do more than tell it like it is—it’s to imagine what is possible.”
—bell hooks (b. c. 1955)