In urethane anesthetized, adult male Wistar rats, noxious chemical stimulation of the mid to lower thoracic interspinous tissues, in the form of capsaicin injection, was accompanied by a pronounced increase in gastric sympathetic nerve activity and inhibition of gastric motility. Much weaker effects on gastric sympathetic nerve activity and gastric motility were observed with similar stimulation of the lower lumbar interspinous tissues. The inhibitory response of gastric motility to thoracic stimulation was preserved in spinalized animals, somewhat diminished in vagotomized animals and was abolished in most animals from which the coeliac ganglion had been extirpated. In vagotomized animals, treatment with 1 mg/kg propranolol i.v. did not cause any further attenuation of the inhibitory reflex. However, the inhibitory reflex was extinguished in vagotomized animals which received 1 mg/kg propranolol plus 10 mg/kg phentolamine i.v. These results suggest that noxious chemical stimulation of the interspinous tissues elicits a segmentally organized reflex which is mediated principally at the spinal level and which expresses itself principally, but not exclusively via sympathetic efferents traversing the coeliac ganglion. The expression of the reflex response appears to be largely dependent upon the integrity of alpha adrenergic receptors.