Widespread effects of disrupting a sensory field during suckling and swallowing in an infant pig model

This poster was a preliminary analysis of EMG data collected various muscles associated with feeding. We used infant pigs as our model, and compared muscle activity during sucking and swallowing milk before and after a surgically-induced lesion of the superior laryngeal nerve. We found that there were significant changes in timing of sucking vs. the pharyngeal swallow, which might be related to the ability to protect the airway from aspiration.