Title of Document: THE EFFECT OF A CITRUS TASTANT ON PILL SWALLOWING Amy Beth Albert, Master of Arts, 2010 Directed By: Dr. Barbara C. Sonies, Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences If using a sweetened citrus tastant (i.e., a chemical that stimulates the taste buds and produces a sense of taste) to coat a pill could make swallowing pills easier, this could have a considerable positive impac...

Diagnostic assessment of swallowing in routine clinical practice relies heavily on the long-standing techniques of videofluoroscopic swallowing study (VFSS) and videoendoscopic evaluation of swallowing (VEES). These complementary and sophisticated techniques provide a real-time visualization of biomechanical movements of the structures involved in swallowing and consequent effects on bolus flow...

Swallowing is under the control of premotoneurons located in the medullary solitary tract nucleus. While rats with transected mid-brain do not seek out food, they are able to ingest food present near the mouth, and acute food deprivation induces an increase in food intake. Leptin is a satiety signal that regulates feeding behavior. Since leptin receptors are found within the caudal brainstem, a...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE The objective of the present study was to investigate the neural mechanisms of dysphagia in suprabulbar palsy (SBP) with multiple lacunar infarct. METHODS We evaluated the swallowing disorders of patients with SBP (n=34) and age-matched healthy control subjects (n=35) by means of an electrophysiological method that recorded the oropharyngeal swallowing patterns. With th...

OBJECTIVE Oropharyngeal dysphagia is a common feature of patients with myotonic dystrophy and is not usually perceived due to their emotional deficits and lack of interest. The aim was to show the existence and frequency of subclinical electrophysiological abnormalities in oropharyngeal swallowing and to clarify the mechanisms of dysphagia in myotonic dystrophy. METHODS Eighteen patients with...

BACKGROUND The physiology of swallowing is characterized by a complex and coordinated activation of many stomatognathic, pharyngeal, and laryngeal muscles. Kinetics and electromyographic studies have widely investigated the pharyngeal and laryngeal pattern of deglutition in order to point out the differences between normal and dysphagic people. In the dental field, muscular activation during sw...

IMPORTANCE Data support proactive swallowing therapy during radiotherapy (RT) or chemoradiotherapy (CRT) for pharyngeal cancers. The benefits of adherence to a regimen of swallowing exercises and maintaining oral intake throughout treatment are reported, but independent effects are unclear. OBJECTIVE To evaluate the independent effects of maintaining oral intake throughout radiotherapy and ad...

Aim: To compare the chewing process and swallowing threshold parameters of subjects with complete dentures and overdentures with data obtained from subjects with complete natural dentitions. Methodology: The chewing process in terms of swallowing threshold parameters of four groups of subjects with complete dentures (all females) was quantified by sieving particles after chewing of an artificia...

We introduce a skin-friendly electronic system that enables human-computer interaction (HCI) for swallowing training in dysphagia rehabilitation. For an ergonomic HCI, we utilize a soft, highly compliant ("skin-like") electrode, which addresses critical issues of an existing rigid and planar electrode combined with a problematic conductive electrolyte and adhesive pad. The skin-like electrode o...

The difficulty in masticating and swallowing rice cake was quantified. Healthy subjects ate pieces of rice cake (9 g and 3 g) and a modified product (9 g). We used electromyography to measure the activity of the jaw-closing and -opening muscles during chewing, as well as the suprahyoid muscle activity, laryngeal movement, and sound during swallowing. The smaller the rice cake, the shorter the m...