The effect of weaning on aerodigestive coordination in term and preterm pigs

Preterm birth diminishes the coordination of respiration and swallowing, a life critical function for mammals. This reduced coordination is often attributed to the incomplete neural maturation of preterm infants. At birth and through infancy, infant mammals are obligate milk drinkers, consuming a single, liquid, food until weaning. However, at weaning mammals undergo a behavioral and sensory motor change to a diet requiring significant oral processing, which requires a neuroplastic shift. Term infants show food dependent differences in aerodigestive coordination around weaning. However, how preterm infants respond to changes at weaning is unknown. We hypothesize that preterm infants will not show the food dependent changes in aerodigestive coordination seen in term infants, owing to their distinct neuromaturational trajectory. We delivered 15 pigs (8 preterm, 7 term) via C-section and raised them until weaning (around 26 days post partum). At weaning pigs were recorded with high speed (100 fps) videofluoroscopy and simultaneous phlethysmography drinking milk from a bottle, milk from a bowl, and eating standard pig chow. Swallow times were identified from the video recordings. Swallow-inspiration delay, the time of closest onset of inspiration to a swallow, was calculated from the synchronized plethysmograph trace. We tested for the impact of food type, gestational age, and their interaction on swallow-inspiration delay using a linear mixed model with individual as a random factor. Only food type was significant (p=0.03). Post hoc tests indicated that swallows occurred closer to inspiration onset in chow eating than in in bottle drinking. The absence of difference between weaning term and preterm juveniles may indicate that neuroplasticity around weaning is sufficient to make up for the neuromaturational differences seen closer to birth between term and preterm infants. Further investigation of variation between term and preterm infants in feeding mechanics perinatally are needed to fully explore the impact of weaning on preterm neuromaturation. This abstract was presented at the American Physiology Summit 2026 and is only available in HTML format. There is no downloadable file or PDF version. The Physiology editorial board was not involved in the peer review process.