Читать книгу Dental Neuroimaging - Chia-shu Lin - Страница 50

As addressed in Section 1.1, our understanding of oral functions will not be completed if we overlook brain functions. On the one hand, the CNS plays a crucial role in sensorimotor control of the oral apparatus. On the other hand, all the behaviours related to oral functions, including feeding and oral healthcare, are closely associated with general mental functions, including cognitive and affective processing. Therefore, from the functional perceptive, the brain and the stomatognathic system are both essential for maintaining oral health.

However, the brain–stomatognathic connection stated above is descriptive and does not fully explain the underlying mechanisms. The critical and yet unanswered question is ‘how do the brain and the stomatognathic system work together to maintain our oral health?’. The question is difficult to answer because, before the advent of neuroimaging, researchers have had few tools to directly observe the brain mechanisms associated with oral functions in human subjects. In the following sections, we outline several theoretical frameworks for the brain–stomatognathic connection. The core concepts of the brain–stomatognathic connection are defined. Subsequently, three theoretical frameworks on the brain–stomatognathic connection are discussed. Finally, experimental design to test these theoretical frameworks are discussed.