Abstract
Urinary excretion is an essential aspect of body homeostasis and therefore appears at an early stage of fetal development. In the primitive lower urinary tract, storage and elimination of urine are presumably mediated by nonneural mechanisms; however at later stages of fetal and postnatal life these mechanisms are regulated by neural pathways that trigger involuntary or reflex voiding. As the nervous system matures during the postnatal period reflex voiding is eventually subject to voluntary control which originates in higher centers in the brain (1). Thus, the functions of the lower urinary tract can be grouped according increasing levels of complexity from the most primitive which are intrinsic to the target organs to the most complicated which require the participation of the cerebral cortex.
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© 1995 Springer Science+Business Media New York
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de Groat, W.C. (1995). Developmental Physiology-Overview. In: Zderic, S.A. (eds) Muscle, Matrix, and Bladder Function. Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology, vol 385. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-1585-6_10
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-1585-6_10
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