The nucleus of the solitary tract (NTS) is a primary center, not only for receiving visceral afferents, but also for somatic afferents. Previous experiments demonstrated that NTS might be a primary afferent center for connecting the Stomach Meridian (ST Medirian) and the Stomach. In this study, an extracellular recording method was used to analyze the firing neurons. The variety of NTS' neurons' responses to gastric distention (GD) and different body surface points were compared. In 52 rats, 104 firing neurons of NTS were recorded, in which there were 47 GD related neurons. For the 47 GD relat...