Considerations on the Neural Mechanisms of Swallowing Dysfunction, as Based on Some Physiological Experiments

Abstract

The organized sequence of excitation and inhibition leading to the performance of swallowing is known to be generated in the medullary swallowing center. The center is elementarily triggered into operation by afferent impulses from oropharynx. However, the center receives also influences from the anterolateral frontal cortex as well as from the lateral pontine reticular formation. Any disturbance of such neural areas and/or the routes between them may cause varieties of incoordination of swallowing.
In the infants of early postnatal periods, the coordination of the center is poor, and its achievemeat largely depends upon the oropharyngeal feedback. Asphyxia disturbs also the functioning of the center.
These facts, among other things, have been discussed in relation to clinical occurrences of dysfunction of swallowing