Upper aerodigestive tract neurofunctional mechanisms: lifelong evolution and exercise.

Abstract

The transformation of the upper aerodigestive tract--oral cavity, pharynx, and larynx--serves the functions of eating, speaking, and breathing during sleeping and waking hours. These life-sustaining functions may be produced by a central neural sensorimotor system that shares certain neuroanatomic networks while maintaining separate neural functional systems and network structures. Current understanding of development, maturation, underlying neural correlates, and integrative factors are discussed in light of currently available imaging modalities and recently emerging interventions. Exercise and an array of additional treatments together seem to provide promising translational pathways for evidence-based innovation, novel habilitation, and rehabilitation strategies and delay, or even prevent neuromuscular decline cross-cutting functions and supporting quality of life throughout increasingly enduring lifespans.