Punacha Shreyas, Huang Kevin, Arce-McShane Fritzie I
Department of Oral Health Sciences, School of Dentistry, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, USA.
Division of Neuroscience, Washington National Primate Research Center, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, USA.
J Oral Rehabil. 2025 May 23. doi: 10.1111/joor.14035.
Several age-related oral health problems have been associated with neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's Disease (AD) and Parkinson's Disease (PD). However, the distinction between oromotor dysfunctions in healthy aging and pathological aging remains unclear. This is partly because changes in the cortical and biomechanical ("neuromechanical") control of oromotor behaviour in healthy aging are poorly understood.
The aim of the study was to evaluate age-related changes in tongue and jaw kinematics during natural feeding behaviour in non-human primates.
We captured three-dimensional tongue and jaw movements in young and aged rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta) using high-resolution biplanar videoradiography combined with X-ray Reconstruction of Moving Morphology (XROMM). This approach allowed precise tracking of tongue and jaw kinematics during natural feeding behaviour. Tongue stereotypy and velocity were quantitatively assessed, along with the temporal coordination between tongue and jaw movements. Feeding performance was measured using frequency and duration of food manipulation, chewing, and swallowing.
Older subjects exhibited reduced stereotypy in tongue movements during chews and greater lags in tongue movements relative to jaw movements compared to younger subjects.
Our findings reveal age-related changes in tongue and jaw kinematics, which may indicate impaired tongue-jaw coordination. These results have important implications for the discovery of potential neuromechanical biomarkers for early diagnosis of AD.
一些与年龄相关的口腔健康问题已被证实与神经退行性疾病有关，如阿尔茨海默病（AD）和帕金森病（PD）。然而，健康衰老和病理性衰老过程中口面部运动功能障碍之间的区别仍不清楚。部分原因在于，人们对健康衰老过程中口面部运动行为的皮质和生物力学（“神经力学”）控制变化了解甚少。
本研究旨在评估非人灵长类动物自然进食行为过程中舌和颌运动学与年龄相关的变化。
我们使用高分辨率双平面视频放射成像结合运动形态X射线重建（XROMM）技术，捕捉了年轻和老年恒河猴（猕猴）的三维舌和颌运动。这种方法能够精确追踪自然进食行为过程中舌和颌的运动学变化。对舌的刻板性和速度进行了定量评估，同时评估了舌和颌运动之间的时间协调性。通过食物操作、咀嚼和吞咽的频率及持续时间来衡量进食表现。
与年轻受试者相比，老年受试者在咀嚼过程中舌运动的刻板性降低，且舌运动相对于颌运动的延迟更大。
我们的研究结果揭示了舌和颌运动学与年龄相关的变化，这可能表明舌-颌协调性受损。这些结果对于发现用于AD早期诊断的潜在神经力学生物标志物具有重要意义。
