XROMM and diceCT reveal a hydraulic mechanism of tongue base retraction in swallowing.

ABSTRACT: During primate swallowing, tongue base retraction (TBR) drives the food bolus across the oropharynx towards the esophagus and flips the epiglottis over the laryngeal inlet, protecting against penetration and aspiration of food into the airway. Despite the importance of TBR for swallowing performance, the mechanics of TBR are poorly understood. Using biplanar videoradiography (XROMM) of four macaque monkeys, we tested the extrinsic muscle shortening hypothesis, which posits that shortening of the hyoglossus and styloglossus muscles pulls the tongue base posteriorly, and the muscular hydrostat or intrinsic tongue muscle hypothesis, which suggests that, because the tongue is composed of incompressible fluid, intrinsic muscle shortening increases tongue length and displaces the tongue base pos

SUBMITTER: Orsbon CP 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7237434 | biostudies-literature | 2020 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature