ABSTRACT
Salivary Glands .................................................................................. 71 4.3.2 Taste-Initiated Reflex Secretion of Saliva from von Ebner’s
Salivary Glands .................................................................................. 71 4.3.3 Brainstem Salivatory Nuclei .............................................................. 73 4.3.4 Neurobiology of the Salivatory Neurons........................................... 74
4.4 Future Directions............................................................................................ 78 Acknowledgment ..................................................................................................... 79 References................................................................................................................ 80
The NST plays a pivotal role as a portal of entry of visceral and sensory information arising from the gut, cardiorespiratory, somatosensory, and taste systems. The role of the NST in autonomic and circulatory control has been recently reviewed1,2 but connections from the NST to brainstem motor systems responsible for muscle activity related to feeding and salivary secretion have only recently received attention. Studies of the neurons and synaptic connections between taste afferent input and preganglionic neurons controlling the salivary glands are limited. And although there is considerable anatomical knowledge of the circuits connecting the rostral NST (rNST) to the orofacial motor neuron pools, details of the neurobiology of the synaptic connections remain to be studied. Despite this paucity of information, some functional properties of the reflex connections between the rNST and brainstem motor and preganglionic secretomotor neurons are known and are reviewed here.
