Reference no: EM132610952

The parasympathetic nervous system is what makes us salivate when we think of food, smell food, have food in our mouths and even when we move our jaw around when we are chewing our food. All of this is because the saliva is the first step of breaking down the food with a small amount of enzymes. It also helps in making our food go down the esophagus smoothly by coating it. In order to produce the saliva the medulla receives afferent information from our senses and sends a signal to our glossopharyngeal nerve, which then in turn sends it to our otic ganglion then to the glands of the mouth. When the cells receive the signal there is an immediate response by the "Acinar cells increase secretion of saliva, Duct cells increase HCO3- secretion, Co-transmitters result in increased blood flow to the salivary glands, Contraction of myoepithelium to increase the rate of expulsion of saliva." (Teachmephysiology.com, 2020)