Authors: Ruth Martin Amy Barr Bradley MacIntosh Rebecca Smith Todd Stevens Donald Taves Joseph Gati Ravi Menon Vladimir Hachinski
Publish Date: 2006/08/05
Volume: 176, Issue: 1, Pages: 12-22
Abstract
While brainimaging studies in young adults have implicated multiple cortical regions in swallowing investigations in older subjects are lacking This study examined the neural representations of voluntary saliva swallowing and water swallowing in older adults Nine healthy females were examined with eventrelated functional magnetic resonance imaging fMRI while laryngeal swallowrelated movements were recorded Swallowing in the older adults like young adults activated multiple cortical regions most prominently the lateral pericentral perisylvian and anterior cingulate cortex Activation of the postcentral gyrus was lateralized to the left hemisphere for saliva and water swallowing consistent with our findings in young female subjects Comparison of saliva and water swallowing revealed a fourfold increase in the brain volume activated by the water swallow compared to the saliva swallow particularly within the right premotor and prefrontal cortex This taskspecific activation pattern may represent a compensatory response to the demands of the water swallow in the face of agerelated diminution of oral sensorimotor function
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