Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

Hi, guys
I was hoping if you can help me explain the neuronal control and the protective role (e.g. the closing of glottis prevents food getting into the resp tract.)

Hi Castrol,

I'm a little unclear about the nature of your question. Could you please clarify it for me? What do you want to know about the neuronal control? And what do you mean about the protective role?

Here's what I can tell you off the top of my head. Swallowing is an automatic response that involves motor neurons of hte peripheral nervous system.

Here's a website that gives a good introduction into the various components of the peripheral nervous system:

http://users.rcn.com/jkimball.ma.ultran ... P/PNS.html

One other interesting tidbit of information is the fact that swallowing is one of the few automatic responses that you are born with.

I hope that was helpful. If you have more questions, please let me know.

Best of luck,

Linh

the question I was trying to ask was
To summarise the principle events of swallowing and thier neural control.
So for example what neural control help swallowing.
Also to consider the mechanisms involved in:

A) the movement of the bolus
B) protection of the respiratory tract e.g the closing of glottis prevents entry to the tract

I hope that helps to clarify the question and thanks for the website it provided a good overview of the nervous system.