Neuroplasticity Elicited by Modified Pharyngeal Electrical Stimulation: A Pilot Study

Modified pharyngeal electrical stimulation (mPES) is a novel therapeutic method for patients with neurogenic dysphagia and tracheostomy. However, the underlying neural mechanisms are still unclear. This study aims to investigate the impact of mPES on swallowing-related neural networks and involuntary swallowing frequency using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). 20 healthy volunteers participated in this study, including two separate experimental paradigms. Experiment 1: Immediate effect observation, 20 participants (10 female; mean age 47.65 ± 10.48) were delivered with real and sham mPES in random order for 8 repetitions. fNIRS signals were collected during the whole period of Experiments 1. Swallowing frequency was assessed during sham/real mPES. Experiment 2: Prolonged effect observation, 7 out of the 20 participants (4 female; mean age 49.71 ± 6.26) completed real mPES for 5 sessions (1 session/day). 13 of the 20 participants withdrew for personal reasons. Hemodynamic changes were recorded by fNIRS on day 1 and 5. Results show that mPES evoked cortical activation over a distributed network in bilateral primary somatosensory, primary motor, somatosensory association cortex, pre-motor and supplementary motor area, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, Broca’s area, and supramarginal gyrus part of Wernicke’s area. Meanwhile, the increased frequency of involuntary swallowing was associated with decreased frontopolar activation (frontopolar cortex: Channel 6, p = 0.024, r = −0.529; Channel 23, p = 0.019, r = −0.545). Furthermore, after five days of mPES, decreased cortical activations were observed in the right dorsolateral prefrontal and supramarginal gyrus part of Wernicke’s area, and left frontopolar and M1 areas. Overall, these results might suggest that mPES could elicit changes in neuroplasticity that could reorganize the swallowing-related neural network and increase involuntary swallow frequency.