2013 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

Innovative research on pathophysiology of dysphagia in Dementia: Investigation of association between primitive reflexes and brain activity, and development of therapy

Research Project

Project/Area Number	23659991
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
Allocation Type	Multi-year Fund
Research Field	Social dentistry
Research Institution	The Nippon Dental University
Principal Investigator	HAMURA Akira 日本歯科大学, 生命歯学部, 教授 (60162921)
Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha)	KIKUTANI Takrshi 日本歯科大学, 生命歯学部, 教授 (20214744)
Project Period (FY)	2011 – 2013
Keywords	歯学 / 社会系歯学 / 老年歯学
Research Abstract	In 2011 study, there was a significantly relationship between feeding/swallowing function and risk of oral care, and primitive reflexes. In 2012 study, sight and verbal information improved the cognition in the healthy adults. In 2013 study, verbal information improved the brain activation regardless of sight in healthy elderly people. Moreover in elderly dementia patients, influence from outside improved the brain activation. The results of these studies showed that sight and verbal information made differences for the brain activation. It has been suggested that changing way to feeding and surrounding of eating is important for food intake in safety.