What actually makes us vomit? Chinese scientists think they know the real triggers of the reaction

The scientists were able to map out the neural pathways that lead to our stomach, to our brain, and then to us puking

The value of their discovery is that it could allow for more precise medical development in the future

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Feeling nauseous is a terrible feeling, and now scientists may know how our brains do it to us. Photo: Shutterstock

Published: 6:00pm, 6 Nov 2022

Nothing is worse than eating spoiled food, feeling a wave of nausea and then spending the next 15 minutes vomiting in the bathroom.

We know that the reason for vomiting is the body’s defence mechanism to reject potential toxins. Still, scientists had not fully understood how messages from the gut reach the brain, triggering the reaction.

A study by a team of Chinese scientists, published on Tuesday in the peer-reviewed journal Cell, mapped the neural pathways in mice that detailed what happens when the stomach registers bad food and when our brain tells other parts of the body to puke.

Vomiting is likely triggered by a specific neuron in the brainstem. Photo: Shutterstock

“Details about how the signals are transmitted from the gut to the brain were unclear because scientists could not study the process on mice,” said Peng Cao, a study author, in a press release, referring to the fact that mice do not vomit.

However, mice do retch, opening their mouth and contracting their stomach, which Cao said is similar to the human urge to vomit but just expressed differently.

The team of scientists gave the mice a bacteria that also causes human vomiting, which worked consistently in inducing retching, allowing the team to study the brain’s defence mechanism against the toxin.

They discovered that when the mice’s stomachs came in contact with the bacteria, they released serotonin, a chemical that carries messages across the body’s nervous system.