This study examined the hypothesis that cognitive resources may be involved in swallowing. The approach involved a dual-task, reaction time (RT) paradigm with 10 healthy, non-impaired (NI) control participants and 10 participants in early to middle stages of Parkinsons disease (PD). First, baseline measures were obtained for durations of anticipatory phase and oropharyngeal phase during swallowing and RTs to non-word, auditory stimuli. Next, a dual-task was introduced requiring participants to swallow 5 ml of water from a cup while listening for a target non-word presented auditorily during anticipatory or oropharyngeal phases. Target stimuli were randomized across 19 baseline/single-task and 19 dual-task trials. For the single-task data, repeated measures analyses of variance were used to assess differences in (a) durations of the anticipatory phase across trials within and between participant groups; (b) durations of the oropharyngeal phase across trials within and between participant groups; and (c) durations of reaction times across trials within and between groups. For the dual-task data, analyses of variance were used to assess differences in (a) durations of the anticipatory phase between baseline/single-task and dual-task conditions; (b) durations of the oropharyngeal phase between baseline/single-task and dual-task conditions; and (c) durations of reaction times between baseline/single-task and dual-task conditions for each of the two swallowing phases. Results showed slowed swallowing and RTs in participants with PD compared to controls in both anticipatory and oropharyngeal phases of swallowing. This effect was largely carried by participants in more severe, mid-stage disease as compared to early disease. The anticipatory phase was more affected than the oropharyngeal phase, suggesting that cognitive demands may be greater for that phase. Swallowing durations were similar for NIs and participants in early stage PD, underscoring the strength and persistent nature of swallowing.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:PITT/oai:PITTETD:etd-04282006-085335 |
| Date | 02 May 2006 |
| Creators | Brodsky, Martin B. |
| Contributors | Katherine Verdolini, PhD, Malcolm R. McNeil, PhD, Catherine V. Palmer, PhD, Judith P. Grayhack, PhD, Bonnie Martin-Harris, PhD |
| Publisher | University of Pittsburgh |
| Source Sets | University of Pittsburgh |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.library.pitt.edu/ETD/available/etd-04282006-085335/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to University of Pittsburgh or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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