Hi Raina,
There is a lot of difference between bulbar and pseudobulbar palsy. Let me list them hereunder.
1. Pseudobulbar palsy is an upper motor neuron type of lesion affecting the corticobulbar fibres, that is, fibres connecting cerebral cortex to cranial nerve nuclei in the bulb aka medulla. So in such a lesion features are mainly of the UMN type. Jaw jerk is exaggerated, gag reflex is present, tongue is spastic with a pointed tip. There is emotional lability and patient often has uncontrollable bouts of laughter and crying. Other features are just like bulbar palsy, e.g., dysphagia, dysarthria, nasal intonation of voice, nasal regurgitation while drinking liquids etc.
2. Coming to bulbar palsy, bulb means medulla. Any lesion affecting cranial nerve nuclei in the bulb or medulla leads to bulbar palsy. Symptoms are just like in the pseudobulbar case: dysphagia, dysarthria, nasal intonation, nasal regurgitation. Salient differences are jaw jerk absent, gag reflex absent, tongue is flaccid with a rounded tip sometimes showing fasciculations. No emotional lability..basically it is a LMN type of lesion..
Thank you for the question.
Hope this helps.
References: Richard S Snell's text book of Neuroanatomy
Bedside Clinics In Medicine, Arup Kumar Kundu (Academic Publishers )