Surface Electromyography for Evaluating the Effect of Aging on the Coordination of Swallowing Muscles

This study evaluated the temporal events observed by sEMG to clarify how aging affects the coordination among the masticatory and suprahyoid muscles. We recruited elderly individuals (over 65  years old) who denied dysphagia. The sEMG activities of anterior temporalis, masseter, and suprahyoid muscles were recorded during 3, 15, and 30 ml water swallowing tests (WST). We calculated the time interval between anterior temporalis and suprahyoid peak activity (T-SH interval) and masseter a nd suprahyoid peak activity (M-SH interval) and analyzed their correlation with age. The subjects who could and could not swallow 30 ml of water in one gulp were further assigned into the one-gulp and piecemeal groups, respectively, for subgroup analysis. We recruited 101 subjects, among whom 75 (2 6 males and 49 females) were analyzed after excluding those with suspected dysphagia or low-quality sEMG recordings. Age was significantly correlated with the bilateral T-SH (left:r = 0.249,p = 0.031; right:r = 0.412,p <  0.01) and right M-SH (r = 0.242,p = 0.037) intervals in the 30 ml WST. The correlation between intervals and age were observed in both subgroups. sEMG can be used to investigate the effect of aging on the temporal coordination between masticatory and suprahyoid contraction. Further studies are needed to verify the validity of screening subclinical dysphagia in the elderly.
Source: Dysphagia - Category: Speech-Language Pathology Source Type: research