Different meals produce different digestive motility patterns.

The purpose of these experiments was to characterize the pattern of digestive myoelectric activity produced by four different test meals in dogs. A new approach for the analysis of the myoelectric activity of the small intestine was used. In contrast with methods dividing the tracings into present time periods, the present method respected the "motor entities," hence the continuity, of the tracing. Two types of motor entities occurred: "activity units" which are groups of consecutive slow waves with spiking, and "rest units," which are groups of consecutive slow waves without spiking. The frequency of occurrence and frequency of alternation of the various activity and rest units occurring during digestion was calculated. Digestive myoelectrical activity was characterized by the frequent occurrence and alternation of short activity and rest units. Three different patterns of digestive activity could be discriminated, ie, a fat, a protein and carbohydrate, and a canned food pattern.