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Abstract #4309

Cortical Activation During Swallowing Rehabilitation Maneuvers: A Functional MRI Study of Healthy Controls

Kyung K. Peck1, Ryan Branski, Cathy Lazarus2, Victoria Cody, Devon Kraus, Samantha Haupage, Cindy Ganz, Andrei Holodny, Dennis Kraus

1Medical Physics and Radiology, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, United States; 2New York University


Both the Effortful and Mendelsohn maneuver are currently used in the clinical setting as a component of a comprehensive rehabilitation of swallowing. However, the brain responses to these tasks and how activation differs from dry swallowing has not been investigated. In this study, we seek to provide preliminary data regarding the neural networks associated with commonly-employed rehabilitation strategies. We hypothesize that with increased understanding of the neural bases behind these maneuvers, factors of peripheral injury as well as the central adaptor response can be considered in order to develop enhanced rehabilitation strategies for this challenging patient population