McCarter, R.: Effects of age on the contraction of mammalian skeletal muscle. In Kaldor, G. and DiBattista, W.J. (eds.). Aging in Muscles. New York: Raven Press, 1978. McGeer, E. and McGeer, P.L.: Neurotransmitter metabolism in the aging brain. In Terry, R.D. and Gershon, S. (eds.). Neurobiology of Aging New York: Raven Press, 1976. Sessle, B.J.: How are mastication and swallowing programmed and regulated? In Sessle, B.J. and Hannam, A.G. (eds.). Mastication and Swallowing. University of Toronto Press, 1976. Sharma, V.K. and Bannerjee, S.P.: Muscarinic cholinergic receptors in rat heart. Effects of thyroidectomy. J. Biol. Chem. 252:7444-7447, 1977. Stone, J.L. and Norris, A.H.: Activities and attitudes of participants in the Baltimore longitudinal study. J. Gerontol. 21:575-580, 1966. Strehler, B.L.: Introduction: aging and the human brain. In Terry, R.D. and Gershon, S. (eds.). Neurobiology of Aging. New York: 1976. Raven Press, Terry, R.D. and Gershon, S.: Neurobiology of Aging. New York: Raven Press, 1976. Discussion Following Papers by Zarb, Welford, and Baum DR. BRYANT: We only have time for one or two quick questions. DR. BISHOP: Dr. Baum, I was interested in the absence from your list of any involuntary motor activities. DR. BAUM: This study is relatively new, and we've surely not included all variables of concern. But I would add that there is a little bit in the paper concerning uncoordinated tongue movements. About five or six of the people I saw had different varieties of jerky, unsteady, uncoordinated tongue movements. We will continue to examine this, but at present it's somewhat tenuous. DR. MASON: I would like to suggest something for your testing armamentarium that would be particularly relevant to the possible deterioration of neuromotor skills. You remember diadokinesis as done with the finger tips. We've been using that. in speech pathology in the oral cavity for years-having people repeat such as "pa-pa-pa-pa-pa." You can get a good fix on not only the number of repetitions per second, but the pattern of movements. It's based on the principle that when you push a structure to its limits, it will sometimes unmask things. This has been helpful in speech pathology to pick up children whose neuromotor systems for speech are lagging beyond age-appropriate development of speech sounds. I think it could be used very well with the elderly as a means of looking at neuromotor skills, in a context that will deal with things that other behaviors may not. RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE SUBCOMMITTEES ORAL MOTOR BEHAVIORS AND CHILDREN'S ORAL HEALTH Chairperson: Elliot Gale Professor of Behavioral Sciences State University of New York at Buffalo ORAL MOTOR BEHAVIORS AND ORAL DISORDERS OF ADULTS Chairperson: John D. Rugh Assistant Professor Division of Occlusion Department of Restorative Dentistry ORAL MOTOR BEHAVIORS AND DENTAL PROBLEMS IN AGING Chairperson: George Zarb Department of Prosthodontics Faculty of Dentistry Toronto, Canada |