Jestrović Iva, Coyle James L, Perera Subashan, Sejdić Ervin
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Swanson School of Engineering, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA.
Department of Communication Science and Disorders, School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA; Department of Otolaryngology, School of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA.
Brain Res. 2016 Dec 1;1652:158-169. doi: 10.1016/j.brainres.2016.09.041. Epub 2016 Sep 29.
Consuming thicker fluids and swallowing in the chin-tuck position has been shown to be advantageous for some patients with neurogenic dysphagia who aspirate due to various causes. The anatomical changes caused by these therapeutic techniques are well known, but it is unclear whether these changes alter the cerebral processing of swallow-related sensorimotor activity. We sought to investigate the effect of increased fluid viscosity and chin-down posture during swallowing on brain networks. 55 healthy adults performed water, nectar-thick, and honey thick liquid swallows in the neutral and chin-tuck positions while EEG signals were recorded. After pre-processing of the EEG timeseries, the time-frequency based synchrony measure was used for forming the brain networks to investigate whether there were differences among the brain networks between the swallowing of different fluid viscosities and swallowing in different head positions. We also investigated whether swallowing under various conditions exhibit small-world properties. Results showed that fluid viscosity affects the brain network in the Delta, Theta, Alpha, Beta, and Gamma frequency bands and that swallowing in the chin-tuck head position affects brain networks in the Alpha, Beta, and Gamma frequency bands. In addition, we showed that swallowing in all tested conditions exhibited small-world properties. Therefore, fluid viscosity and head positions should be considered in future swallowing EEG investigations.
对于一些因各种原因出现误吸的神经性吞咽困难患者，摄入较浓稠的液体并采用收下巴姿势吞咽已被证明是有益的。这些治疗技术所引起的解剖学变化是众所周知的，但尚不清楚这些变化是否会改变与吞咽相关的感觉运动活动的大脑处理过程。我们试图研究吞咽过程中增加液体粘度和收下巴姿势对脑网络的影响。55名健康成年人在中性姿势和收下巴姿势下分别吞咽水、花蜜般浓稠和蜂蜜般浓稠的液体，同时记录脑电图（EEG）信号。在对EEG时间序列进行预处理后，基于时频的同步测量用于构建脑网络，以研究不同液体粘度吞咽和不同头部位置吞咽时脑网络之间是否存在差异。我们还研究了在各种条件下吞咽是否具有小世界特性。结果表明，液体粘度会影响δ、θ、α、β和γ频段的脑网络，收下巴头部位置吞咽会影响α、β和γ频段的脑网络。此外，我们还表明，在所有测试条件下的吞咽都具有小世界特性。因此，在未来的吞咽EEG研究中应考虑液体粘度和头部位置。
