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Age-related Changes in Brain Regional Activity during Chewing: A Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study

¹ Departments of Anatomy and Basic Neuroscience and
² Physiology, Gifu University School of Medicine, 40 Tsukasa-machi, Gifu 500-8705, Japan;
³ Department of Veterinary Physiology, Faculty of Agriculture, Gifu University, Gifu 501-1193, Japan;
⁴ Department of Radiology, Yoro Central Hospital, Yoro 503-0013, Japan;
⁵ Department of Oral Biochemistry, Kanagawa Dental College, Yokosuka 238-8580, Japan; and
⁶ Business Center for Academic Societies of Japan, Tokyo 113-8622, Japan;

^* corresponding author, onozuka{at}cc.gifu-u.ac.jp

Age-related changes in mastication-induced brain neuronal activity have been suggested. However, in humans, little is known about the anatomical regions involved. Using fMRI during cycles of rhythmic gum-chewing and no chewing, we have examined the effect of aging on brain regional activity during chewing in young adult (19–26 yrs), middle-aged (42–55 yrs), and aged (65–73 yrs) healthy humans. In all subjects, chewing resulted in a bilateral increase in the BOLD signals in the sensorimotor cortex, cerebellum, thalamus, supplementary motor area, and insula, and a unilateral increase in the right prefrontal area. In the first three regions, the signal increases were attenuated in an age-dependent manner, whereas, in the right prefrontal area, the converse was seen. The remaining two regions showed no significant differences with ages. These results indicate that chewing causes regional increases in neuronal activity in the brain, some of which are age-dependent.

KEY WORDS: fMRI • gum chewing • brain activation • aging • human

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