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The comprehensive microfloral profile of the tongue coating is closely related to pneumonia-related health problems in institutionalized older adults.

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Oral exercises, including tongue, lip, and jaw movements, are commonly used in clinical practice as training to improve oral and pharyngeal swallowing in dysphagia patients. These rehabilitation exercises are believed to affect the peripheral and central nervous system at various levels. However, few studies have examined healthy subjects' brain activity while performing oral exercises used in dysphagia rehabilitation. The current study sought to measure brain activation during oral exercises in healthy subjects using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Lip-pursing and lip-stretching, tongue protrusion, lateral tongue movement, and oral ball-rolling were selected as tongue and lip exercise tasks. The tasks were performed by eight healthy subjects, and the fMRI data were submitted to conjunction analyses. The results confirmed that head movements during all tasks exhibited translation of <1.0 mm and rotation of <1.0° in x, y, and z coordinates. We found several clear regions of increased brain activity during all four oral exercises. Commonly activated regions during tongue and lip exercises included the precentral gyrus and cerebellum. Brain activation during ball-rolling was more extensive and stronger compared to the other three oral exercises.

There are currently no standard evaluation tools for poststroke neurogenic oropharyngeal dysphagia. We previously suggested calculating the relative movements of the hyoid bone and larynx by ultrasonography to evaluate swallowing movement. Swallowing movement is altered in neurogenic oropharyngeal dysphagia. Therefore, the present study aimed to verify whether an ultrasonographic evaluation of swallowing movement facilitates the detection of neurogenic oropharyngeal dysphagia. Eighteen healthy male elderly participants (the healthy group) and 18 male stroke patients diagnosed with neurogenic oropharyngeal dysphagia (the dysphagia group) were enrolled. Participants swallowed 5 mL of liquid and water with an adjusted viscosity and the movements of the hyoid bone and larynx were visualized by ultrasonography. The results obtained revealed significant differences in laryngeal duration (static phase), laryngeal displacement (elevation phase), and the hyoid bone–laryngeal motion ratio (HL motion ratio) between the two groups. A multiple regression analysis was performed to adjust for confounding factors, and laryngeal duration (static phase) and the HL motion ratios were identified as factors affecting dysphagia. In the receiver operation characteristic curve of the two variations, the area under the curve for laryngeal duration (static phase) was 0.744 and the cut-off was 0.26 sec with 72.2% sensitivity and 88.9% specificity; the area under the curve for the HL motion ratio was 0.951 and the cut-off was 0.56 with 88.9% sensitivity and 88.9% specificity. Therefore, the objective evaluation of hyoid bone and larynx movements during swallowing by ultrasonography facilitated the detection of neurogenic oropharyngeal dysphagia.