Evaluation of Tongue Movement Function and the Effect of Tongue Movement Exercise

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to evaluate differences in tongue movement function between young and elderly subjects. We developed a tongue-movement measuring device and which was used with 3 young subjects and 3 elderly subjects to measure the duration of two types of tasks (anteroposterior and lateral movements). In both movements, the duration measured for elderly subjects proved to be longer than that for young subjects. In both groups, the duration of the first trial of each task was longer than that of the second or the third trial. These results suggested that tongue movement functionality for elderly subjects was lower than that for young subjects, and tongue movement function was improved by repeating the same task.