To Explore the Functional Connectivity Pattern of Cortical Swallowing Network in the Oral Phase of Post-stroke Dysphagia Based on Dynamic Causal Modelling

Swallowing is a complex movement consisting of sequential and ordered activation of swallowing muscles interconnected cortical areas that facilitate the complex communication of sensory inputs and motor outputs to control oral movements such as jaw or chewing.During the swallowing task, the cortical swallowing network collaborates with each other to regulate swallowing activity. The damage of the swallowing cortex can affect the coordination of muscle groups in the swallowing process. Compared with healthy people, stroke patients show disordered swallowing movements, which greatly increases the risk of aspiration. Different lesions and connectivity patterns of stroke can affect the prognosis of dysphagia after stroke.In stroke patients with dysphagia, functional brain networks associated with motor control of swallowing were found to be disrupted in acute stroke patients with dysphagia.The recovery of dysphagia after stroke is related to the compensation of swallowing network in the contralateral hemisphere and different connectivity patterns of diseased brain areas, and the integrity of cortical swallowing network connectivity affects the sequence of oral swallowing activities. However, it is not clear how the functional connectivity patterns and interactions of brain regions of the cortical swallowing network related to oral swallowing activity change in patients with oral dysphagia after stroke.The purpose of this study is to explore the specific brain regions that are related to the dynamic changes of the functional connectivity pattern of the cortical swallowing network and the neuroimaging representations of the interbrain interaction in the oral phase of patients with dysphagia after stroke.