Our primary purpose was to characterize vagal pathways controlling gastric motility by microinjecting L-glutamate into the dorsal motor nucleus of the vagus (DMV) in the rat. An intragastric balloon was used to monitor motility. In 39 out of 43 experiments, microinjection of L-glutamate into different areas of the DMV rostral to calamus scriptorius (CS) resulted in vagally-mediated excitatory effects on motility. We observed little evidence for inhibitory effects even with i.v. atropine or with activation of gastric muscle muscarinic receptors by i.v. bethanechol. Inhibition of nitric oxide synthase with L-NAME did not augment DMV-evoked excitatory effects on gastric motility. Microinjection of L-glutamate into the DMV caudal to CS produced vagally-mediated gastric inhibition that was resistant to L-NAME. L-glutamate microinjected into the medial subnucleus of the tractus solitarius (mNTS) also produced vagally-mediated inhibition of gastric motility. Motility responses evoked from the DMV were always blocked by ipsilateral vagotomy while responses evoked from the mNTS required bilateral vagotomy to be blocked. Microinjection of oxytocin into the DMV inhibited gastric motility, but the effect was never blocked by ipsilateral vagotomy, suggesting that the effect may have been due to diffusion of oxytocin to the mNTS. Microinjection of substance P and NMDA into the DMV also produced inhibitory effects attributable to excitation of nearby mNTS neurons. Our results do not support previous studies indicating parallel vagal excitatory and inhibitory pathways originating in the DMV rostral to CS. Our results do support previous findings of vagal inhibitory pathways originating in the DMV caudal to CS.