Objective physiological measures of lingual and jaw function in healthy individuals and individuals with dysphagia due to neurodegenerative diseases.

Swallowing is a neuromuscular process that involves a complex sequence of sensorimotor events, which are executed to efficiently and safely transport food and liquid from the mouth to the stomach. Safe oropharyngeal swallowing involves the activation, modulation, and coordination of oral, pharyngeal, laryngeal, and esophageal structures and musculature. Impaired or atypical patterns of swallowing are considered characteristic of a swallowing disorder, otherwise referred to as dysphagia, and affect the performance of all stages, i.e., oral preparatory, oral transit, pharyngeal, and esophageal. Lingual and jaw musculature play critical roles in mediating swallowing function, particularly during the oral preparatory and oral transit stages. This current study presents an adapted simple, economical, and clinically relevant protocol that may be used to quantify lingual and jaw movement in healthy and disordered swallowing, and thus track physiological changes in lingual and jaw musculature over time in individuals with dysphagia due to neurodegenerative diseases.•Jaw ROM tasks, adapted from [1,2], were adapted and utilized to measure the jaw during three postures: opening, lateralization, and protrusion.•Adapting a scale developed by Lazarus and colleagues [3], objective lingual ROM values were obtained using the TheraBiteⓇ tool [4] and categorized according to functional status.•Upon methodological adaption and collation of lingual ROM and jaw ROM tasks, a comprehensive set of images clearly depicting each procedural task and a clinically friendly form were developed to guide data collection for research and clinical use.

Objective measures of lingual and jaw function in healthy adults and persons with Parkinson's disease: Implications for swallowing.

The study examines the effects of age and Parkinson's disease on lingual and jaw function in neurotypical adults, as well as persons with Parkinson's Disease. Preliminary results provide reference measures in these populations and support the systematic collection of objective data regarding lingual strength, lingual range of motion, and jaw range of motion in clinical populations. The application of this clinically meaningful protocol also provides a means to track physiological changes over time in order to maximize the results of rehabilitative efforts to restore swallow function.

Predictive value of laryngeal adductor reflex testing in patients with dysphagia due to a cerebral vascular accident.

Purpose: To determine the relationship between air pulse vs. touch laryngeal adductor reflex (LAR) tests and the clinical sensory findings of fiberoptic endoscopic evaluations of swallowing.Method: A retrospective review was conducted for 43 patients with dysphagia due to stroke that underwent fiberoptic endoscopic evaluation of swallowing with sensory testing (FEESST). Each patient received LAR testing using air pulse or touch methodologies. Clinically, responsiveness to pharyngeal residue and responsiveness to penetration or aspiration were analysed.Result: The sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values for both LAR test groups indicate that LAR testing did not effectively predict sensory function during the clinical swallow evaluation. Across both LAR groups, specificity values were higher than sensitivity values. In fact, the specificity values for the light touch LAR test group were extremely high, but the negative predictive values did not support those findings. Sensitivity and positive predictive values were low for both groups.Conclusion: Although LAR testing provides valuable information regarding laryngeal sensory discrimination, the results of the current study suggest that a clinical evaluation of swallowing is critical for effectively assessing the way in which patients utilise sensory information during swallowing.

Time-Frequency Analysis of Mu Rhythm Activity during Picture and Video Action Naming Tasks.

This study used whole-head 64 channel electroencephalography to measure changes in sensorimotor activity-as indexed by the mu rhythm-in neurologically-healthy adults, during subvocal confrontation naming tasks. Independent component analyses revealed sensorimotor mu component clusters in the right and left hemispheres. Event related spectral perturbation analyses indicated significantly stronger patterns of mu rhythm activity ( p FDR < 0.05) during the video condition as compared to the picture condition, specifically in the left hemisphere. Mu activity is hypothesized to reflect typical patterns of sensorimotor activation during action verb naming tasks. These results support further investigation into sensorimotor cortical activity during action verb naming in clinical populations.