Quantitative imaging of tongue kinematics during infant feeding and adult swallowing reveals highly conserved patterns.

ABSTRACT: Tongue motility is an essential physiological component of human feeding from infancy through adulthood. At present, it is a challenge to distinguish among the many pathologies of swallowing due to the absence of quantitative tools. We objectively quantified tongue kinematics from ultrasound imaging during infant and adult feeding. The functional advantage of this method is presented in several subjects with swallowing difficulties. We demonstrated for the first time the differences in tongue kinematics during breast- and bottle-feeding, showing the arrhythmic sucking pattern during bottle-feeding as compared with breastfeeding in the same infant with torticollis. The method clearly displayed the improvement of tongue motility after frenotomy in infants with either tongue-tie or restrictiv

SUBMITTER: Genna CW 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7866619 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature