Meeting Abstract

 

P2-256  Saturday, Jan. 5 15:30 – 17:30  The coordination of respiration and swallowing in preterm mammals MAYERL, CJ*; BOND, LE; STRICKLEN, BM; GOULD, FH; GERMAN, RZ; Northeast Ohio Medical University; Northeast Ohio Medical University; Northeast Ohio Medical University; Northeast Ohio Medical University; Northeast Ohio Medical University cmayerl@neomed.edu

Endothermic animals such as mammals have high functional demands for both feeding and breathing. However, these two behaviors must be temporally separate because food must cross the airway in the pharynx. The ability to coordinate feeding and breathing is therefore critical to survival. Preterm infant mammals typically struggle to coordinate these behaviors, reflecting an immature nervous system. However, increased neuroplasticity in such infants suggests that they may be able to overcome problems coordinating breathing and swallowing as they age. To test this possibility, we compared the coordination of respiration and deglutition in preterm and term infant pigs longitudinally from birth to weaning. We found that term pigs exhibited substantial coordination between breathing and feeding from seven days old through weaning, and that they increased the delay of inspiration following a swallow as they aged, implying increased airway protection. However, preterm infants possessed no stereotyped breathing patterns related to the timing of the swallow when young and failed to develop such coordinated behavior throughout suckling. Our results indicate that some aspects of this immature nervous system are carried through infancy and may be manifest as animals wean and start eating solid food.