Characterizing functional connectivity patterns during saliva swallows in different head positions
- PDF / 1,693,557 Bytes
- 11 Pages / 595 x 794 pts Page_size
- 46 Downloads / 184 Views
JNER
RESEARCH
JOURNAL OF NEUROENGINEERING AND REHABILITATION
Open Access
Characterizing functional connectivity patterns during saliva swallows in different head positions Iva Jestrovi´c1 , James L. Coyle2 and Ervin Sejdi´c1*
Abstract Background: The anatomical rationale and efficacy of the chin tuck in improving airway protection for some people with swallowing disorders have been well researched and established. However, there are still open questions regarding whether brain activity for swallowing control is altered while performing this chin-tuck maneuver. Methods: In this study, we collected EEG signals from 55 healthy adults while swallowing in the neutral and chin-tuck head positions. The time-frequency based synchrony measure was used to form brain networks. We investigated both the small-world properties of these brain networks and differences among the constructed brain networks for the two head positions during swallowing tasks. Results: We showed that brain networks for swallowing in both head positions exhibit small-world properties. Furthermore, we showed that swallowing in the chin-tuck head position affects brain networks in the Alpha and Gamma frequency bands. Conclusions: According to these results, we can tell that the parameter of head position should be considered in future investigations which utilize EEG signals during swallowing activity. Keywords: EEG, Graph theory, Brain network, Dysphagia, Swallowing, Chin-tuck
Introduction Dysphagia refers to any kind of swallowing disorder, and it may occur for many different reasons. In the case of neurogenic dysphagia, swallowing difficulties occur due to lesions in disparate cortical and subcortical brain regions, or other structures of the central and peripheral nervous systems [1]. Some of the most common causes of oropharyngeal dysphagia are stroke [2], Parkinson’s diseases [3], cerebral palsy [4], and physical traumatic brain injuries [5]. Compromised airway protection and aspiration of food and liquids are the most significant immediate clinical result of dysphagia [6, 7]. Aspiration can lead to lethal outcomes such as airway obstruction, or develop into pneumonia which, according to previous studies, carries a mortality rate of 20 % to 50 % for dysphagia sufferers [8–10]. *Correspondence: [email protected] 1 Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Swanson School of Engineering, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA Full list of author information is available at the end of the article
Swallowing in the chin-tuck position (head and neck flexion) is one of several postural techniques that allows some patients with specific swallowing abnormalities to swallow more safely [11, 12]. The chin-tuck maneuver involves flexing the head and neck approximately fortyfive to sixty degrees, approximating the chin to the anterior upper chest while swallowing. This posture has been shown to produce several biomechanical advantages during swallowing for patients who have impaired ability to maintain posterior containment of food and liqui
Data Loading...
