Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, United Kingdom.
Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, United Kingdom.
Neurosci Biobehav Rev. 2014 Nov;47:469-84. doi: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2014.09.015. Epub 2014 Oct 2.
Oral somatosensory awareness refers to the somatic sensations arising within the mouth, and to the information these sensations provide about the state and structure of the mouth itself, and objects in the mouth. Because the oral tissues have a strong somatosensory innervation, they are the locus of some of our most intense and vivid bodily experiences. The salient pain of toothache, or the habit of running one's tongue over one's teeth when someone mentions "dentist", provide two very different indications of the power of oral somatosensory awareness in human experience and behaviour. This paper aims to review the origins and structure of oral somatosensory awareness, focussing on quantitative, mechanistic studies in humans. We first extend a model of levels of bodily awareness to the specific case of the mouth. We then briefly summarise the sensory innervation of oral tissues, and their projections in the brain. We next describe how these peripheral inputs give rise to perceptions of objects in the mouth, such as foods, liquids and oral devices, and also of the mouth tissues themselves. Finally, we consider the concept of a conscious mouth image, and the somatosensory basis of "mouth feel". The theoretical framework outlined in this paper is intended to facilitate scientific studies of this important site of human experience.
口腔躯体感觉意识是指口腔内产生的躯体感觉，以及这些感觉提供的关于口腔本身和口腔内物体状态和结构的信息。由于口腔组织具有强烈的躯体感觉神经支配，它们是我们最强烈和最生动的身体体验的所在地。牙痛的明显疼痛，或者当有人提到“牙医”时用舌头舔牙齿的习惯，为口腔躯体感觉意识在人类经验和行为中的力量提供了两个非常不同的迹象。本文旨在回顾口腔躯体感觉意识的起源和结构，重点是对人类进行定量、机械的研究。我们首先将身体意识的层次模型扩展到口腔的具体情况。然后，我们简要总结口腔组织的感觉神经支配及其在大脑中的投射。接下来，我们描述这些外周输入如何产生对口腔内物体的感知，例如食物、液体和口腔器具，以及口腔组织本身的感知。最后，我们考虑有意识的口腔图像的概念以及“口腔感觉”的躯体感觉基础。本文概述的理论框架旨在促进对这一人类体验重要部位的科学研究。
