In this week’s Medical Discovery News by UTMB’s David Niesel and Norbert Herzog: Why don’t we normally bite our tongues when we eat? A recent study found that two types of cells in brain, the premotor neurons and motoneurons, work together to coordinate the movements of the jaw and tongue, so that you do not usually bite your own tongue. We can control chewing consciously, but otherwise it works automatically. Coordination of jaw and tongue muscles during eating is one of the most intricate mechanisms of the motor system in animals and humans. The coordination concerns both the timing and the sequence of muscle activation, in order to achieve the smooth and effective motions required when eating. The news also appears in the Galveston Daily News