Live Office Hours: Let's Talk About the Soft Palette

Let's talk about the soft palate, shall we?

ONE POINT OF CLARIFICATION:
I misspoke when I said that the larynx and the soft palate move down in tandem at the outset of a yawn - this is not anatomically factual. So DISREGARD that ... HOWEVER
While the soft palate may rise at the beginning of the yawn, it *may* not close entirely, AND it may lower at any time throughout the rest of the yawn.

My point is: our mapping of that sensation of 'raised soft palate' EVEN IN THE YAWN position is generally faulty.

Try this out:
Yawn, feel the sensation of the 'raised soft palate', and then close your mouth while maintaining that sensation and breathe through your nose.

Congrats: you likely still feel like your soft palate is raised BUT it is not closing the 'door' entirely because: how is that breath getting in and out of your body?

So what physiological reality is that sensation mapped to? It's likely mapped to a widened pharynx / flattened soft palate, rather than a raised one.
#foodforthought

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