Nicholas P. Timms
Submitted: December 2025 : Published: 15th February, 2026
Abstract
The Gut-Brain Axis (GBA) is a complex, bidirectional communication network intrinsically linking the enteric and central nervous systems. Within this network, the brain and vagus nerve modulate essential gut functions, including the gastric slow wave—a basal 0.05 Hz electrical rhythm generated by pacemaker cells that dictates peristaltic contractions. Relying on existing mathematical models that describe the slow wave using a 1-D wave equation, this paper proposes reframing the stomach as a biological analogue gravity system. In this model, the stomach wall functions as an “effective spacetime metric,” while the 0.05 Hz slow wave “Gaussian pulses” behave as massless scalar fields propagating through the medium. The GBA serves as the central controller of this effective spacetime. Through vagal modulation, the brain “tunes” the physical properties of the metric, dictating the location-dependent wave speed across the gastric system. This framework allows gastrointestinal motility disorders, such as gastroparesis, to be understood as pathologies of the effective spacetime metric. Specifically, conduction blocks—regions where the propagation speed pathologically drops to function as “analogue event horizons” that trap the gastric pulse and result in a measurable breakdown of motility.
A Theoretical Framework for Gastric Electrophysiology: Re-framing the Gut-Brain Axis and the Gastric Slow Wave as an Analogue Gravity System
Leave a Reply