Functional MRI of Swallowing: from Neurophysiology to Neuroplasticity

Overview

Journal Head Neck

Specialties General Surgery
Oncology

Date 2011 Sep 9

PMID 21901779

Citations 29

Authors

Georgia A Malandraki

Sterling Johnson

JoAnne Robbins

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Swallowing is a complex neurogenic sensorimotor process involving all levels of the neuraxis and a vast number of muscles and anatomic structures. Disruption of any of these anatomic or functional components can lead to swallowing disorders (also known as dysphagia). Understanding the neural pathways that govern swallowing is necessary in diagnosing and treating patients with dysphagia. Functional MRI (fMRI) is a prevalent and effective neuroimaging method that has been used to study the complex neurophysiologic control of swallowing in vivo. This article presents a summary of the research studies that have used fMRI to study the neural control of swallowing in normal subjects and dysphagic patients, and to investigate the effects of swallowing treatments on neuroplasticity. Methodologic challenges and caveats are discussed, and a case study of a pre-posttreatment paradigm is presented to highlight potential future directions of fMRI applications in swallowing research and clinical practice.

Citing Articles

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Cortical compensation mechanism for swallowing recovery in patients with medullary infarction-induced dysphagia.

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Cortical Activation during Swallowing Exercise Tasks: an fNIRS Pilot Study.

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The neurorehabilitation of post-stroke dysphagia: Physiology and pathophysiology.

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Research trends and hotspots of post-stroke dysphagia rehabilitation: a bibliometric study and visualization analysis.

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