Tough to Swallow

Sip a refreshing drink, or take a bite of yummy food and, for most of us, no thought is given to what happens next. Swallowing, like blinking and breathing, is automatic. But what if it isn’t, and one of life’s pleasures becomes uncomfortable and a serious choking risk? Swallowing disorders have a variety of causes that often include a neurological problem such as nerve damage from a degenerative disease, stroke or neurotoxic medication. Recently, researchers have identified in mice the particular oesophagus-targeting neurons (pictured) that sense the presence of food or liquid in the throat and relay signals to the brain to prompt peristalsis – the wave-like squeezing of oesophageal muscles that pushes food to the stomach. The hope is that knowledge of how these cells work and how they might be stimulated could ultimately lead to interventions for people where the simple act of swallowing has become difficult and dangerous.

Written by Ruth Williams

Ruth Williams

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Ruth is a freelance science journalist based in the US. She's a regular correspondent for The Scientist, and her work has appeared in The Lancet, Nature, Scientific American Mind, BBC Focus and elsewhere. Twitter @rooph

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• Image from work by Elijah D. Lowenstein and colleagues
• Developmental Biology/Signal Transduction, Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine, Berlin, Germany
• Image copyright held by the original authors
• Research published in Neuron, May 2023