Question

Movement of food through the digestive system is due to contractions of both skeletal and smooth muscle. Use what you know about the anatomy of the digestive system to explain why both types of are necessary. (2 mark)

Answer 1

The movement of the food through the digestive system involves the stretching and contraction of the gut wall muscles in the gastrointestinal tract.The synchronized contraction and relaxation of the GI tract muscles named as peristalsis.It involves the skeletal and smooth muscle during the process.The skeletal muscles innervate the vagal nucleus which causes the stimulation of the neurons and the smooth muscles get stimulated by the dorosomotor nucleus through the vagal nerve, thus these activation causes the contraction of the muscles during movement of the food.