Recovery of Swallowing Function is Accompanied by the Expansion of the Cortical Map

To determine whether multiple sessions of electrical stimulation (ES) applied to neck muscles improve swallowing function and whether this improvement is accompanied by cortical reorganization in patients with dysphagia, before-after trials were performed on eight subjects. ES was applied for 1 hour, 5 days a week for 2 weeks. Swallowing function significantly improved after 2 weeks of ES, and this change was found to correlate with cortical reorganization measured by corticobulbar output maps. This study suggests that multiple sessions of ES applied to the neck muscles improve swallowing function via a mechanism involving long-term cortical reorganization.