AGE DIFFERENCES IN ORAL SENSORY FUNCTIONING

描述：该项目将包括两个子项目。第一 是一项正在进行的纵向标准化或真皮感官老化项目 (嗅觉、味觉、触觉、升温和降温温度以及疼痛)，以及 第二项测试将评估感官变化(触摸、升温和降温 体温和疼痛)患者受影响的皮肤体 患有神经病理性疼痛，带状疱疹后遗神经痛。 标准老化项目将评估老化对感官的影响 功能(嗅觉、味觉、冷暖温度和疼痛) 利用心理物理评估方法在纵向 学习。在基线神经学检查后筛查出 不同年龄的有明显神经缺陷的个人 个人(四个年龄组：年轻(20-29岁)，中年(35-44岁)， 老年人(65-74岁)和&gt；75年)将经历一系列 心理物理研究(门槛和门槛上的确定 味觉、触觉、温度和疼痛；检测和识别 气味)来评估这项横断面研究中的感觉功能。这个 阈值以上的刺激将在符合以下条件的词的上下文中进行判断 描述由这些刺激引起的感觉：(1)提供 将提高阈值以上可靠性的上下文 感官判断，以及(2)提供对任务表现的控制 (在感官评分范例中)。阈值以上感觉的测量 将确定每个受试者和模式的可识别性。 这些指数(合并相邻违规者算法和Kendall的tau) 测量受试者反应的可变性，以及 增加的科目平均分的单调性检验 刺激幅度。将对数据进行分析以确定 感觉变化的模式(跨通道)存在于 横断面分析中的不同年龄个体。这个 三年和(六年)随访神经学检查和 感官评估将提供纵向数据以检验其作用 时间(衰老)和/或临床或亚临床系统疾病 感官功能。此外，如果来自 样本出现全身性疾病并伴随神经功能缺陷 (例如笔划)纵向数据可以提供关于 在这些疾病发生之前的感觉变化。这 后者的发现可能为早期诊断提供有价值的见解。 潜在的致衰性疾病，因此可能允许 适当的预防性医学干预以改变疾病的进程 条件。此外，在规范老龄化研究中，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函数。 带状疱疹后神经痛项目将使用相同的感觉测试 老年性痴呆患者感觉缺陷的评估范式 带状疱疹后遗神经痛。此外，它还将评估感官的变化 在接受疾病治疗的个体中发挥作用。本研究 将提供对神经性(非神经性)神经机制的洞察 (伤害性的)疼痛状态，如带状疱疹后神经痛。为 例如，疼痛的减轻可能与选择性地恢复正常相一致 感官功能。

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.