Abdominal bloating is a common symptom in patients with functional gastrointestinal diseases (FGIDs). Abdominal bloating has many features such as conceptual ambiguity, fuzzy diagnosis, high incidence and difficulty in treatment. In current clinical practice, " early satiety" is often used as an indicator of abdominal bloating. In Rome III diagnostic criteria, abdominal bloating with " early satiety" belongs to functional dyspepsia (FD) in functional gastroduodenal diseases. According to the literature, the onset of FD is closely related to gastric sensory disorders and gastric motility disorders. In fact, existing data suggest that gastric sensory disturbances can′t explain the " early satiety" type of abdominal bloating symptoms in FD patients, and that gastric dysmotility may be related to " early satiety" abdominal bloating in a small group of FD patients. Conversely, dysfunctions of the gastro-colic reflex and head-stage effects associated with encircling feeding periods can explain the " early-satiety" type of abdominal bloating that covers all phases. Therefore, whether there is " early satiety" or not, abdominal bloating has a more close relationship with colonic disorders than that with gastroduodenal dysfunctions. The clarification of abdominal bloating is aimed at more accurate diagnosis and treatment of bloating. In addition, this article also point out that emotional disorders are often the cause of functional abdominal distension, attentions should be paid to the combination of emotional disorders and FGIDs symptoms in treatment.