Journal of Medical and Dental Sciences
Online ISSN : 2185-9132
Print ISSN : 1342-8810
ISSN-L : 1342-8810
Role of the anterior cingulate cortex in volitional swallowing: an electromyographic and functional magnetic resonance imaging study
Keiko Maeda Takashi OnoHideo ShinagawaEi-ichi HondaTohru KurabayashiKimie Ohyama
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JOURNAL OPEN ACCESS

2006 Volume 53 Issue 3 Pages 149-157

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Abstract

Anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) plays an important role in human volition, but its function in swallowing is not well known. We tested the hypothesis that visual inputs given before volitional swallowing modulate the ACC activity. We evaluated the relationship between visual effect on swallowing “behavior” and “brain activity” using EMG (electromyography) and fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging). Seven healthy volunteers participated in the EMG study, and 10 volunteers in the fMRI study. Visual images, i.e., photographs of food (DRINK) or general items (GENERAL), were used as the visual input and these were provided with (WS) or without (DS) water. Both behavioral and brain activity data were recorded during each trial in four (DRINK/WS, GENERAL/WS, DRINK/DS, GENERAL/DS) conditions. EMG study showed that the latency was significantly shorter with DRINK input than that with GENERAL input in the WS condition. Meanwhile, in the fMRI study, the maximum MR signal change was greater with GENERAL than that with DRINK in both WS and DS conditions. Thus, it appears that there was a relationship between swallowing behavior and the ACC activity in volitional swallowing

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© 2006 Tokyo Medical and Dental University (TMDU)
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