Brain Activity and Human Unilateral Chewing: An fMRI Study
Brain Activity and Human Unilateral Chewing: An fMRI Study
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DOI：
10.1177/0022034512466265
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发表时间：
2013-02-01
影响因子：
7.6
通讯作者：
Gerstner, G. E.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Quintero, A.;Ichesco, E.;Gerstner, G. E.
咀嚼背后的大脑机制已经在非人类哺乳动物中进行了研究，但在人类中的研究较少。我们使用功能磁共振成像(FMRI)来评估人类咀嚼口香糖时的大脑活动。咀嚼与小脑、运动皮质、尾状核、扣带核和脑干的激活有关。我们还将25秒的咀嚼块分成5个相等的5秒持续时间段，并评估了5个段内和每个段之间的激活。这项分析揭示了最初部分特有的激活簇，这可能表明大脑中与开始咀嚼有关的区域。在最后一段中，也有几个簇被独特地激活，这些簇可能代表了与咀嚼块末端相关的预期或运动事件相关的大脑区域。总而言之，这项研究为人类与咀嚼相关的特定大脑区域提供了证据，并证明了大脑激活模式可能会在咀嚼序列的过程中动态变化。
Brain mechanisms underlying mastication have been studied in non-human mammals but less so in humans. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to evaluate brain activity in humans during gum chewing. Chewing was associated with activations in the cerebellum, motor cortex and caudate, cingulate, and brainstem. We also divided the 25-second chew-blocks into 5 segments of equal 5-second durations and evaluated activations within and between each of the 5 segments. This analysis revealed activation clusters unique to the initial segment, which may indicate brain regions involved with initiating chewing. Several clusters were uniquely activated during the last segment as well, which may represent brain regions involved with anticipatory or motor events associated with the end of the chew-block. In conclusion, this study provided evidence for specific brain areas associated with chewing in humans and demonstrated that brain activation patterns may dynamically change over the course of chewing sequences.