INTRODUCTION: Swallowing is a complex physiological process that happens for a motor sequence automatically regulated by a complex mechanism that neuromotor and neuromuscular starts consciously and is the result of anatomical and functional integrity of different facial structures. It is of utmost importance for the nutrition of the organism as a whole. And one of the biggest challenges in the field of science is to identify the neural substrates of physiological parameters, including the process of swallowing. The development of technology for functional neuroimaging in recent years is causing a rapid advancement in the knowledge of brain function, resulting in an explosion of new findings in neuroscience.
OBJECTIVE: To map the regions of brain activation during swallowing phenomenon by examining fMRI.
METHOD: The study included four females, aged between 18 and 30 years old without neurological, structural and food. After approval of the institution (Clínica Lobo), the Committee of Ethics and Research Institute of Health Sciences (ICS) and the written approval of each patient through the term of free and informed consent, underwent four swallowing tests deglutórias using the technique functional MRI.
RESULTS: It was possible to determine the activation of the cerebral and cerebellar hemispheres and specific areas that compose them. Even with a small sample, the results of the individual analysis showed patterns according to the literature, together with new data.
DISCUSSION: The cerebellum is responsible for the coordination of motor action and maintaining harmony of movements, position and balance of the bolus, the medulla along with the brainstem is the center of activity reflex that controls automatic functions or bodily responses like swallowing; midbrain is the part of the brain that coordinates the visual information; thalamus forwards almost any type of sensory information to specific areas of the cerebral cortex, hypothalamus, important in testing pleasure sensations, regulates the homeostatic functions of the body, taste , olfaction, salivation, interacting with the autonomic nervous system and the limbic system is connected to the control and direction of emotional reactions, under the action of the amygdala in processing odors and storing memory contents, here through the hippocampus.
CONCLUSION: The act of swallowing is a complex process, activating many brain areas, among which we highlight the taste, mental / visual and olfactory and that starts long before the mechanical processes involved, as demonstrated by the cortical and subcortical areas activated. The olfactory area was most notably highlighted in the pictures taken by Rmf.
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