Soft palate

Soft Palate

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Soft palate

The soft palate (or velum, or muscular palate) is the soft tissue

Biological tissue

Tissue is a cellular organizational level intermediate between cells and a complete organism. Hence, a tissue is an ensemble of cells, not necessarily identical, but from the same origin, that together carry out a specific function....
constituting the back of the roof of the mouth

Mouth

The mouth, buccal cavity, or oral cavity is the first portion of the alimentary canal that receives food and begins digestion by mechanically breaking up the solid food particles into smaller pieces and mixing them with saliva....
. The soft palate is distinguished from the hard palate

Hard palate

The hard palate is a thin horizontal bone plate of the skull, located in the roof of the mouth. It spans the arch formed by the upper teeth.It is formed by the palatine process of the maxilla and horizontal plate of palatine bone....
at the front of the mouth in that it does not contain bone.

soft palate is movable, consisting of muscle

MUSCLE

MUSCLE is public domain, multiple sequence alignment software for protein and nucleotide sequences.MUSCLE is integrated into UGENE bioinformatics tool as a plugin....
fibers sheathed in mucous membrane

Mucous membrane

The mucous membranes are linings of mostly germ layer origin, covered in epithelium, which are involved in absorption and secretion. They line various body cavities that are exposed to the external environment and internal organ ....
. It is responsible for closing off the nasal passages

Respiratory system

A respiratory system?s function is to allow gas exchange. The space between the alveoli and the capillaries, the anatomy or structure of the exchange system, and the precise physiological uses of the exchanged gases vary depending on the organism....
during the act of swallowing

Swallowing

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Encyclopedia

The soft palate (or velum, or muscular palate) is the soft tissue

Biological tissue

Mouth

Hard palate

Function

The soft palate is movable, consisting of muscle

MUSCLE

Mucous membrane

Respiratory system

Swallowing

"Gulp" redirects here. For other uses, see Gulp .Swallowing, known scientifically as deglutition, is the process in the human or animal body that makes something pass from the mouth, to the pharynx, into the esophagus, with the shutting of the epiglottis....
, and also for closing off the airway. During sneezing, it protects the nasal passage by diverting a portion of the excreted substance to the mouth.

The soft palate also retracts and elevates during speech to separate the oral cavity (mouth) from the nasal cavity in order to produce the oral speech sounds. If this separation is incomplete, air escapes through the nose, causing speech to be perceived as overly nasal.

The uvula, hanging from the end of the soft palate, is responsible for the sound of snoring

Snoring

Snoring is the vibration of respiratory structures and the resulting sound, due to obstructed air movement during breathing while sleeping. In some cases the sound may be soft, but in other cases, it can be rather loud and quite unpleasant....
. Touching the uvula or the end of the soft palate evokes a strong gag reflex

Gag reflex

The pharyngeal reflex or gag reflex is a reflex contraction of the back of the throat, evoked by touching the soft palate. It prevents something from entering the throat except as part of normal swallowing and helps prevent choking....
in most people.

Muscles of soft palate

Muscle	Action	Nerve >- \| levator veli palatini Levator veli palatini The levator veli palatini is the elevator muscle of the velum palatinum in the human body. During swallowing, it contracts, elevating the soft palate to help prevent food from entering the nasopharynx....	deglutition	Vagus nerve Vagus nerve The vagus nerve is the tenth of twelve paired cranial nerves, and is the only nerve that starts in the brainstem and extends, through the jugular foramen, down below the head , to the neck, chest and abdomen, where it contributes to the innervation of the viscera.... via pharyngeal plexus \|- \| tensor veli palatini	deglutition	mandibular nerve Mandibular nerve The mandibular nerve is the largest of the three branches of the trigeminal nerve.... \|- \| palatoglossus	respiration Respiration (physiology) In animal physiology, respiration is the transport of Oxygen from the outside air to the cells within Tissue s and the transport of carbon dioxide in the opposite direction....	Vagus nerve Vagus nerve The vagus nerve is the tenth of twelve paired cranial nerves, and is the only nerve that starts in the brainstem and extends, through the jugular foramen, down below the head , to the neck, chest and abdomen, where it contributes to the innervation of the viscera.... via pharyngeal plexus \|- \| palatopharyngeus	respiration Respiration (physiology) In animal physiology, respiration is the transport of Oxygen from the outside air to the cells within Tissue s and the transport of carbon dioxide in the opposite direction....	Vagus nerve Vagus nerve The vagus nerve is the tenth of twelve paired cranial nerves, and is the only nerve that starts in the brainstem and extends, through the jugular foramen, down below the head , to the neck, chest and abdomen, where it contributes to the innervation of the viscera.... via pharyngeal plexus \|- \| musculus uvulae Musculus uvulae The musculus uvulae is a muscle of the soft palate....	moves uvula	Vagus nerve Vagus nerve The vagus nerve is the tenth of twelve paired cranial nerves, and is the only nerve that starts in the brainstem and extends, through the jugular foramen, down below the head , to the neck, chest and abdomen, where it contributes to the innervation of the viscera.... via pharyngeal plexus

Additional images

External links

- "Diagram of the regions of the oral cavity."

Soft palate

Function

Muscles of soft palate

Additional images

See also

External links