The muscular-hydrostat model of tongue function proposes a constant interaction of extrinsic (external bony attachment, insertion into base of tongue) and intrinsic (origin and insertion within the tongue) tongue muscles in all tongue movements (Kier WM and Smith KK. Zool J Linn Soc 83: 207-324, 1985). Yet, research that examines the respiratory-related effects of tongue function in mammals con...

Superficial transient discoloration of the dorsum of the tongue may be caused by some foods, beverages and drugs (such as iron salts, bismuth, chlorhexidine, lansoprazole, amoxicillin, clarithromycin). When such discoloration noticeably affects the posterior dorsum of the tongue with longer filiform papillae and stained dark brown or black, the term ‘black hairy tongue’ is used. Black tongue (l...

Tongue diagnosis in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) assesses the health by investigation of tongue coating. The science and technology of tongue coating analysis have become a significant issue for modernization of TCM. The relationship between microecology of tongue coating and TCM was relevant to the syndrome differentiation in TCM, such as the cold/hot syndrome may exhibit different speci...

Tongue body segmentation is a prerequisite to tongue image analysis and has recently received considerable attention. The existing tongue body segmentation methods usually involve two key steps: edge detection and active contour model (ACM)-based segmentation. However, conventional edge detectors cannot faithfully detect the contour of the tongue body, and the initialization of ACM suffers from...

Tongue diagnosis is a unique method in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). This is the first investigation on the association between traditional tongue diagnosis and the tongue coating microbiome using next-generation sequencing. The study included 19 gastritis patients with a typical white-greasy or yellow-dense tongue coating corresponding to TCM Cold or Hot Syndrome respectively, as well as...

The purpose of the present study was to investigate whether or not sensory input from the tongue affects deglutitive tongue movement. Subjects were seven healthy volunteers with anesthetic applied to the surface of the tongue (surface group) and seven healthy volunteers with the lingual nerve blocked by anesthetic (blocked group). We established six stages in deglutition and analyzed deglutitiv...

Pronunciation training based on speech production techniques illustrating tongue movements is gaining popularity. However, there is not sufficient evidence that learners can imitate some tongue animation. In this paper, we investigated human awareness of controlling their tongue body gestures. In a first experiment, participants were asked to perform some tongue movements. This task was evaluat...

A new three-dimensional tongue model has been developed within the KTH 3D vocal tract project using manually extracted tongue contours from MR Images of a reference subject producing 43 artificially sustained Swedish articulations. The six linear parameters jaw height, tongue body, tongue dorsum, tongue tip, tongue advance and tongue width were determined using an ordered linear factor analysis...

BACKGROUND Multilevel obstruction in obstructive sleep apnea commonly includes retroglossal obstruction. To improve surgical success rates, tongue volume reduction with posterior midline glossectomy and/or lingual tonsillectomy is widely performed. METHODS Nasotracheal intubation was utilized, and the combined tongue procedure was performed as a final step after palatal surgery. The tongue wa...