Researchers used an expanded Ginzburg–Landau model to show that rhythmic oscillations in gut peristalsis and small-vessel blood flow in the brain follow similar physical rules. The model reproduced oscillation patterns observed in cat intestines and explains how nearby oscillators can synchronize or remain distinct depending on thresholds. Although the gut and brain differ structurally, the shared dynamics could help interpret pulsations linked to mental-health changes and potentially to early signs of dementia. The study appears in Physical Review Letters.
Hidden Rhythms: Gut Peristalsis and Brain Blood Flow Follow the Same Physics
Researchers used an expanded Ginzburg–Landau model to show that rhythmic oscillations in gut peristalsis and small-vessel blood flow in the brain follow similar physical rules. The model reproduced oscillation patterns observed in cat intestines and explains how nearby oscillators can synchronize or remain distinct depending on thresholds. Although the gut and brain differ structurally, the shared dynamics could help interpret pulsations linked to mental-health changes and potentially to early signs of dementia. The study appears in Physical Review Letters.
00:58, 07.11.2025Science
Hidden rhythms connect gut and brain
Our bodies are full of subtle, repeating cycles — from the breaths we take to the nightly waves that help clear the brain. New research shows that important rhythmic patterns in the gut and in small blood vessels of the brain obey very similar physical rules.
The simpler system first: gut peristalsis
An international team began by modeling gut peristalsis, the wave-like muscular contractions that push food through the digestive tract. Building on prior work, they developed an expanded Ginzburg–Landau (GL) mathematical model to capture the rhythms and traveling waves involved. The updated model reproduced oscillation patterns previously recorded in cat intestines, giving the team confidence that it captures key dynamics of the system.
Coupled oscillators and thresholds
The new framework shows how nearby groups of oscillators — regions that rhythmically contract or pulse — can synchronize, or "couple," when their intrinsic differences remain below certain thresholds. When those differences are too large, the groups remain distinct. These thresholds help explain a variety of flow and wave patterns observed in the digestive tract.
Similar physics in the brain
Intriguingly, the same dynamical rules appear applicable to networks of neurons and the small vessels that control cortical vasomotion — the rhythmic shifts in cerebral blood flow that help time oxygen and nutrient delivery to active tissue. The researchers stress that this is a similarity in behavior and underlying physics, not a direct physiological connection between gut contents and brain vasculature.
"Coupled oscillators talk to each other and each section of the intestine is an oscillator that talks to the other sections near it,"
There are important structural differences between the two organs: the gut is largely a one-way conduit, while blood travels through a branching vascular network and can flow in multiple directions. Still, mapping the shared dynamics may help researchers interpret pulsations in brain and gut that have been associated with mental-health changes and in some cases may foreshadow neurodegenerative processes such as dementia.
"The brain is infinitely more complicated than the gut, but this is science at its best: you ask one question, it leads you somewhere else, you solve that problem, then return to your original question,"
The study is published in Physical Review Letters. While early and primarily theoretical, the findings offer a promising bridge between biological systems and may guide future experiments on cortical vasomotion and its clinical relevance.