How rich functionality emerges from the rather invariant structural architecture of the peripheral autonomic nervous system remains one of the major mysteries in neuroscience. The high incidence of patients with neural circuit-related autonomic nervous system diseases highlights the importance of fundamental research, among others with neurotracing methods, into autonomic neuron functionality. Due to the emergence of neurotropic virus-based tracing techniques in recent years the access to neuronal connectivity in the peripheral autonomic nervous system has greatly been improved. This review is devoted to the anatomical distribution of neural circuits in the periphery of the autonomous nervous system and to the interaction between the autonomic nervous system and vital peripheral organs or tissues. The experimental evidence available at present has greatly expanded our understanding of autonomic peripheral nervous system neurons.

外围自主神经系统的不变结构如何产生丰富的功能仍然是神经科学的主要谜团之一。与神经回路相关的自主神经系统疾病患者的高发病率凸显了基础研究以及其他神经追踪方法对自主神经元功能的重要性。由于近年来基于神经嗜性病毒的追踪技术的出现，大大改善了周围自主神经系统中神经元连通性的获取。这项审查致力于在自主神经系统的外围神经回路的解剖分布以及在自主神经系统和重要的外围器官或组织之间的相互作用。