Smooth functions which are Morse on preimages of values not being local extrema and constructing natural functions of the class on connected sums of manifolds admitting these functions

We discuss smooth functions which are Morse on preimages of values not being local extrema. We call such a function internally Morse or I-Morse. The Reeb graph of a smooth function is the space of all connected components of preimages of single points of it topologized with the natural quotient topology of the manifolds and a vertex of it is a point corresponding to a preimage with critical points. A smooth function is neat with respect to the Reeb graph or N-Reeb if the preimages of the vertices are the closed subsets in the manifolds of the domains with interiors being empty. We discuss I-Morse and N-Reeb functions, IN-Morse-Reeb functions. Our main result presents an IN-Morse-Reeb function respecting two such functions, on a connected sum of these given manifolds.