Development study for oral rehabilitation with plasticity of the prefrontal cortex

我们利用功能近红外光谱研究了12名被试在视觉引导下舌头运动任务中的前额叶皮层活动。同一被试完成了三个具有相同视觉线索序列的任务，分别是需要4个方向舌头运动的方向选择任务、只需要舌头向前运动的舌头突出任务和不需要舌头运动的控制任务。所有受试者的前额叶皮层在方向选择任务中都被激活。该任务中的活动比伸舌任务和控制任务中的活动更强、范围更广。这些发现表明，视觉刺激下的舌头定向运动不仅可以改善感觉运动功能，还可以改善参与认知功能的高级脑功能。

We investigated prefrontal cortical activity during visual guided tongue movement tasks by the functional near-infrared spectroscopy in 12 subjects. Same subject performed three tasks with same visual cue sequence as follows, the direction selective task that required 4 direction tongue movements, the tongue protrusion task that required only forward tongue movement, and control task that required no tongue movement.In all subjects, the prefrontal cortex was activated during the direction selective task. The activity during this task was recorded stronger and in wider region than these during the tongue protrusion task and control task. These findings suggest the direction selective tongue movements by visual stimulation may improve not only sensorimotor function but also the higher brain function involvement in cognitive function.