The tongue is an intricately configured muscular organ that undergoes a stereotypical set of deformations during the course of normal human swallowing. In order to observe the relationship between fiber organization and mechanics during swallowing, the tissue’s myoarchitecture and strain rate were measured during swallowing. Fiber organization was imaged with high-resolution diffusion tensor imaging and multi-voxel myofiber tracts generated along maximum diffusion vectors. Tissue compression/expansion was obtained via lingual pressure-gated phase-contrast MRI, which we have studied previously. The co-alignment of myofiber tract direction and the localized principal strain rate vectors was used to measure the fiber-aligned strain rate. These data demonstrate that lingual deformation during swallowing involves complex interactions involving intrinsic and extrinsic muscles.

pdf