Mammalian infants must be able to integrate the acquisition, transport, and swallowing of food in order to effectively feed. Understanding how these processes are coordinated is critical, as they have differences in neural control and sensitivity to perturbation. Despite this, most studies of infant feeding focus on isolated processes, resulting in a limited understanding of the role of sensorimotor integration in the different processes involved in infant feeding. This is especially problematic in the context of preterm infants, as they are considered to have a pathophysiological brain development and often experience feeding difficulties. Here, we use an animal model to study how the different properties of food acquisition, transport, and swallowing differ between term and preterm infants longitudinally through infancy in order to understand which processes are sensitive to variation in the bolus being swallowed. We found that term infants are better able to acquire milk than preterm infants, and that properties of acquisition are strongly correlated with the size of the bolus being swallowed. In contrast, behaviors occurring during the pharyngeal swallow, such as hyoid and soft palate movements, show little to no correlation with bolus size. These results highlight the pathophysiological nature of the preterm brain and also demonstrate that behaviors occurring during oral transport are much more likely to respond to sensory intervention than those occurring during the 'pharyngeal phase'.

中文翻译：

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早产儿和足月儿的吸吮与吞咽协调、整合和表现

哺乳动物婴儿必须能够整合食物的获取、运输和吞咽，才能有效地喂养。了解这些过程如何协调至关重要，因为它们在神经控制和对扰动的敏感性方面存在差异。尽管如此，大多数婴儿喂养的研究都集中在孤立的过程上，导致对感觉运动整合在婴儿喂养所涉及的不同过程中的作用的理解有限。这在早产儿的情况下尤其成问题，因为他们被认为具有病理生理的大脑发育并且经常遇到喂养困难。在这里，我们使用动物模型来研究食物获取、运输、和吞咽在婴儿期和早产儿之间纵向不同，以了解哪些过程对吞咽的食团变化敏感。我们发现足月婴儿比早产儿更容易获得牛奶，并且获得的特性与吞咽的食团大小密切相关。相比之下，咽吞咽过程中发生的行为，例如舌骨和软腭运动，与食团大小几乎没有相关性。这些结果突出了早产大脑的病理生理学性质，还表明口腔运输期间发生的行为比“咽期”期间发生的行为更可能对感官干预做出反应。我们发现足月婴儿比早产儿更容易获得牛奶，并且获得的特性与吞咽的食团大小密切相关。相比之下，咽吞咽过程中发生的行为，例如舌骨和软腭运动，与食团大小几乎没有相关性。这些结果突出了早产大脑的病理生理学性质，还表明口腔运输期间发生的行为比“咽期”期间发生的行为更可能对感官干预做出反应。我们发现足月婴儿比早产儿更容易获得牛奶，并且获得的特性与吞咽的食团大小密切相关。相比之下，咽吞咽过程中发生的行为，例如舌骨和软腭运动，与食团大小几乎没有相关性。这些结果突出了早产大脑的病理生理学性质，还表明口腔运输期间发生的行为比“咽期”期间发生的行为更可能对感官干预做出反应。例如舌骨和软腭运动，与食团大小几乎没有相关性。这些结果突出了早产大脑的病理生理学性质，还表明口腔运输期间发生的行为比“咽期”期间发生的行为更可能对感官干预做出反应。例如舌骨和软腭运动，与食团大小几乎没有相关性。这些结果突出了早产大脑的病理生理学性质，还表明口腔运输期间发生的行为比“咽期”期间发生的行为更可能对感官干预做出反应。