Oral care-induded activation and reproduction of the neurocognitive function in the elderly

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In this study, we investigated the involvement of toothbrushing(TB) in neurocognition, using mini-mental state examination (MMSE) and kana-hiroi test (KHT). Neurologically healthy subjects were used, of which 13 subjects were randomly selected to participate in the experiment using a functional magnetic resonance imaging(fMRI). When the scores in the tests using MMSE and KHT were compared between in the presence and absence of TB, we found that TB causes significant increases in the score of all tests. In MMSE and KHT, this effect was apparently age-dependent. Furthermore, in the experiment using fMRI, an activation of the prefrontal cortex during performance of KHT was markedly increased in the presence of TB. These results suggest that TB causes an enhancing effect on the neurocognitive function in the elderly through activation in the prefrontal cortex.