Dynamics of posterior tongue during pronunciation and voluntary tongue lift movement in young adults

• Published in: Journal of oral rehabilitation 2012-05, Vol.39 (5), p.370-376
• Main Authors: SHIRAHIGE, C., OKI, K., MORIMOTO, Y., OISAKA, N., MINAGI, S.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adult; Dentistry; Female; Humans; lingual radix; Male; motility; Movement; Phonetics; rehabilitation; Speech - physiology; Speech Articulation Tests - instrumentation; swallow; Tongue - physiology; tongue lift
• ISSN: 0305-182X; 1365-2842
• DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2842.2011.02283.x

Summary  The lifting‐up movement of the posterior part of the tongue to touch the palate, which is a requirement for performing physiological functions such as deglutition and speech, is an important phenomenon that is difficult to objectively evaluate. The purpose of this study was to develop a new modality to evaluate the tongue‐lifting function, especially in the posterior part of the tongue, and to elucidate the dynamic properties of the tongue in normal subjects. Twenty‐three healthy volunteers (9 men and 14 women; mean age, 27·6 years) participated in this study. A new device was developed that could evaluate the up‐down movement of the posterior part of the tongue in a non‐invasive manner. The experimental tasks were as follows: (i) /a/ pronunciation for 1 s followed by /ka/ pronunciation (a‐ka task), (ii) /a/ pronunciation for 1 s followed by /ga/ pronunciation (a‐ga task) and (iii) /a/ pronunciation for 1 s followed by a voluntary push‐up movement of the posterior part of the tongue (a‐lift task). Maximum upward velocity in the a‐ga task was larger than that in the a‐ka task (P