AGE DIFFERENCES IN ORAL SENSORY FUNCTIONING

说明：该项目将包括两个子项目。 第一 是一个正在进行的纵向规范性或非线性感官老化项目 （嗅觉、味觉、触觉、升温和降温以及疼痛），以及 第二个将评估感觉变化（触摸、升温和降温 温度和疼痛）在患者的受影响皮区 患有神经性疼痛带状疱疹后神经痛 标准老化项目将评估老化对感官的影响， 功能（嗅觉、味觉、升温和降温以及疼痛） 利用心理物理评估方法， study. 在基线神经系统检查后， 具有明显神经缺陷的个体，不同年龄 个体（四个年龄组：年轻（20-29岁），中间（35-44岁）， 和老年人（65-74岁和>75岁））将接受一系列的 心理物理学研究（阈值和超阈值保持确定， 味觉、触觉、温度和疼痛;以及对 嗅觉），以评估横断面研究中的感觉功能。 的 阈上刺激将在单词的上下文中被判断， 描述由这些刺激引起的感觉：（1）提供一个 上下文，这将增加阈值以上的可靠性 感官判断，和（2）提供了一个控制任务的执行 (in感官评定范例）。 阈上感觉测量 将确定每个受试者和模态的可辨别性。 这些指数（合并相邻违规者算法和肯德尔的tau） 测量受试者反应的变异性以及 受试者平均评级单调性检验， 刺激强度 将对数据进行分析，以确定 感觉变化的模式（跨模态）存在于 不同年龄的人在横断面分析。 的 3年和（6年）随访神经系统检查， 感官评估将提供纵向数据，以检查 时间（老化）和/或临床或亚临床全身性疾病 感觉功能 此外，如果来自 样本出现全身性疾病伴相关神经功能缺损 (such纵向数据可以提供关于 这些疾病发生之前的感觉变化。这 后一个发现可能为早期诊断提供有价值的见解 潜在的使人衰弱的疾病，从而潜在地允许 采取适当的预防性医疗干预措施， 条件 此外，在规范老化研究中，这些目标 数据将与口腔感觉的自我报告测量相关 从核心问卷中获得的功能。 带状疱疹后神经痛项目将采用相同的感觉测试 范式来评估老年人的感觉缺陷， 带状疱疹后神经痛此外，它还将评估感官的变化， 在接受治疗的个体中发挥作用。本研究 将提供深入了解神经病理性（非- 伤害性的） 疱疹后神经痛等疼痛症状。 为 例如，疼痛减轻可能与选择性恢复正常一致 感觉功能

DESCRIPTION: This project will include two subprojects. The first is an ongoing longitudinal normative or of acial sensory aging project (smell, taste, touch, warming and cooling temperature, and pain), and the second will assess sensory changes(touch, warming and cooling temperature, and pain) in the affected dermatomes of patient afflicted with a neuropathic pain condition, postherpetic neuralgia. The normative aging project will assess the effect of aging on sensory functioning (smell, taste, warming and cooling temperature, and pain) utilizing psychophysical assessment methodology in a longitudinal study. Following a baseline neurological examination to screen out individuals with demonstrable neurological deficits, different-aged individuals (four age groups: young (20-29 yrs.), middle (35-44 yrs.), and elderly (65-74 yrs. and >75 yrs.)) will undergo a series of psychophysical studies (threshold and suprathres hold determination for taste, touch, temperature, and pain; and detection and recognition for smell) to assess sensory functioning in the cross-sectional study. The suprathreshold stimuli will be judged in a context of words that describe sensations evoked by these stimuli which: (1) provides a context that will increase the reliability of the suprathreshold sensory judgments, and (2) provides a control for task performance (in the sensory rating paradigm). Measures of suprathreshold sensory discriminability will be determined for each subject and modality. These indices (Pooled Adjacent Violators Algorithm and Kendall's tau) measure both the variability of subject's responses as well as a test for the monotonicity of subject mean rating with increased stimulus magnitude. The data will be analyzed to determine if patterns of sensory change (across modality) exists across different-aged individuals in the cross-sectional analyses. The three-year and (six-year) follow-up neurological examination and sensory assessments will provide longitudinal data to examine the role of time (aging) and/or clinical or sub-clinicalsystemic disease on sensory functioning. Further, in the event that individuals from the sample develop systemic disease with associated neurological deficits (such as stroke) the longitudinal data may provide information about sensory changes that precede the occurrence of these diseases.This latter finding may provide valuable insights into the early diagnosis of potentially debilitating disease, thus potentially allowing for appropriate preventive medical intervention to alter the course of the condition. Further, in the normative aging study, these objective data will be related to self-report measures of oral sensory function obtained from the core questionnaire. The postherpetic neuralgia project will employ the same sensory testing paradigm to assess sensory deficits in older adults afflicted by postherpetic neuralgia. Further, it will assess changes in sensory functioning in individuals being treated for the affliction. This study will provide insights into neuro-mechanisms of neuropathic (non- nociceptive) pain conditions such as post-herpetic neuralgia. For example, pain reduction might coincide with selective return to normal sensory functioning.