Untitled

ABSTRACT

It has been noted that speech, speech ontogeny and mastication share common elements, but the nature of such commonality has not been understood. The present material is a new perspective that offers an integration of these functions and also describes the mechanism of some basic behaviors that may assist further research in understanding the mechanics of speech and mastication. The material is summarized below.

1. An ordered mechanical systems can be analyzed as a geometrical configuration of forces and nodes (or centers of mass) through which these forces intersect. Additionally, ordered systems are also hierarchically organized.

2. Established data on speech, speech ontogeny, suckling and mastication combined with rigorous proprioceptive analysis of these functions reveals that such a geometry of forces and hierarchically ordered nodes in fact underlie the mechanism of the upper respiratory-visceral or simply upper visceral (UV) system.

3. It is also found that the fundamental mechanics of the UV is a highly modified form of behavior evolved from the ancestral function of the pharynx, peristalsis.

4. Analysis in such mechanical terms clarifies the workings of discrete UV functions such as mastication, suckling and speech production and also defines the manner of their integration.