Assessment for peripheral and central controls of ingestion behavior

2015 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 25670814
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Prosthodontics/ Dental materials science and
• Research Institution: Niigata University
• Principal Investigator: Makoto Inoue 新潟大学, 医歯学系, 教授 (00303131)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): TSUJIMURA Takanori 新潟大学, 医歯学系, 准教授 (00548935) ; MAGARA Jin 新潟大学, 医歯学総合病院, 講師 (90452060)
• Project Period (FY): 2013-04-01 – 2016-03-31
• Keywords: 嚥下障害 / リハビリテーション / 歯科

Outline of Final Research Achievements

We investigated how peripheral inputs might assist central inputs in the control of voluntary evoked swallowing and whether natural chewing behavior affects the initiation of involuntary swallowing in healthy humans. We delivered pharyngeal electrical stimulation (PES) to the laryngopharynx and compared the number of swallows that occurred with and without PES during chewing, voluntary swallowing or at rest. PES significantly increased the number of voluntary evoked swallows at rest and during voluntary swallowing and this facilitatory effect was larger at rest than during chewing. Based on the current results, we suggest that (1) peripheral inputs within a certain range appear to facilitate the central inputs that control voluntary swallowing, (2) inter-individual variations in swallowing initiation may arise from differences in the excitability of the common neural network, (3) during chewing, such that the neural network associated with chewing may regulate swallowing initiation.

Free Research Field

嚥下障害学