 Dear students, in this topic, we shall discuss the control mechanisms of digestive secretions. The regulation of security, rate and quantity of the digestive secretions happens by the involuntary neural and hormonal controls, the presence of food and the cognition are thought processes. We shall discuss these three types of controls in detail one by one. First, we are going to discuss the involuntary neural and hormonal controls. These controls control all the security activities of glands. For example, slivery secretions are very rapid. They are entirely under involuntary neural control. Gastic secretions are under hormonal as well as neural control. The intestinal secretions are quite slower. They are primarily under hormonal control. Here we can see that general principles of neural and hormonal controls are applicable to digestive secretions. That is, neural control predominates in rapid responses while endocrine mechanisms are involved in slow responses. Now, we shall discuss the role of presence of food on digestive secretions. For digestive juices secretion, the primary stimulus is the presence of food. In the part of gastrointestinal tract, the part of food that is present there, the secretions become more and the part of food that is not present is less. This is because the food molecules stimulate the chemo-sensory nerve endings which act on the autonomic efferents which activate or inhibit motility and exocrine secretions. Food molecules, except for acting directly, activate epithelial endocrine cells. As a result, gastrointestinal hormones are secreted. These gastrointestinal hormones coordinate the secretive organs with the need for digestion. These secretive organs, liver and pancreas, are also affected by cognition and thought processes. Mental images of food are also affected by cognition and thought processes. Mental images of food or learned behaviors stimulate digestive secretions.