The same is true of the 100 million neurons that crisscross the inner lining of your gut—the enteric nervous system, sometimes called the second brain. Those neurons go about their business quietly, taking care of nutrient extraction and waste disposal in the gastrointestinal tract. Things you would rather not know about. On occasion, the enteric system acts up—you feel butterflies in your stomach before a crucial job interview or nauseated after a large meal. That information is communicated via the (gastric) vagus nerve to the cerebral cortex, which then generates the nervous or heavy
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