Coordination between lingual motion and pressure production during dipper/tipper type swallows.

Background: Tongue motor biomechanics during swallowing was not fully elucidated due to the technical difficulty.

Objective: To evaluate the relationship between tongue motion and tongue pressure production by simultaneously measuring tongue motion and tongue pressure during water swallowing.

Methods: In 12 healthy male participants (mean age, 30.8 ± 4.2 years), tongue pressure and tongue motion trajectory during dipper- and tipper-type swallows of 3 mL of water were measured using a sensor sheet system equipped with five sensing points and an electromagnetic articulography, respectively. The temporal correlation between motion of anterior/posterior tongue and tongue pressure production during swallowing was evaluated on the synchronised waveforms.

Results: In the dipper-type swallow, a similar up-and-down motion pattern in vertical direction was observed among all participants before tongue pressure production. Those motion patterns were common at the anterior and posterior tongue locations with a temporal difference in some segment of tongue motion. On the other hand, tongue directly attached to hard palate with temporal synchronicity between the anterior and posterior parts. In both types of swallow, a strong temporal correlation was found between the timing of tongue-palate contact and the Onset of tongue pressure by intra-class correlation coefficients.

Conclusion: From the simultaneous measurement of tongue motion and tongue pressure production, the tongue motion pattern during water swallowing and the temporal correlation between tongue motion and tongue pressure production were elucidated.