Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 23, 2026

Signal Attenuation as a Rat Model of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
Published on: January 9, 2015
Avoidance of swallowing saliva: a symptom related to aberrant basal ganglia functions?
Hideto Miwa1, Kaoru Tsuruta, Tomoyoshi Kondo
1Department of Neurology, Wakayama Medical University, Wakayama, Japan. h-miwa@wakayama-med.ac.jp
Abstract:
We report two patients with avoidance of swallowing saliva despite intact swallowing functions. One, with mild, de novo Parkinson's disease, had a fear that his saliva was contaminated and would harm him. The other, with a history of CNS germinoma in remission for 3 years following chemotherapy, expectorated because his saliva was distasteful and disgusting. He had a lesion involving the left pallidum. Both appeared obsessed with the idea of saliva contamination and both expectorated compulsively, presenting obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) symptoms. OCD-like behavior may be induced in association with pathological conditions in which aberrant basal ganglia functions are present.
More Related Videos
11:49An In Vitro Preparation for Eliciting and Recording Feeding Motor Programs with Physiological Movements in Aplysia californica
Published on: December 5, 2012
08:32Adapting Human Videofluoroscopic Swallow Study Methods to Detect and Characterize Dysphagia in Murine Disease Models
Published on: March 1, 2015
Related Concept Videos
Esophageal Achalasia
Bulimia Nervosa
Physiology of the Gastrointestinal System I: Ingestion and Propulsion
Salivary Glands and Saliva
Brainstem: Control Centers of Medulla
Olivary Nucleus
The olivary nucleus, or inferior olivary nucleus, is located within the ventrolateral part of the medulla oblongata. It is primarily involved in motor coordination and motor learning. The olivary nucleus receives input from the spinal cord, cerebellum, and motor...
Deglutition
Swallowing can be divided into three stages: the voluntary phase, the pharyngeal phase, and the esophageal phase. Although the...