Respiratory-Swallow Coordination in Healthy Adults During Drinking of Thin to Extremely Thick Liquids: A Research Note.

The participants were healthy adults under 60 years, so the data do not describe older adults or people with swallowing, respiratory, neurological, or medication-related conditions. The analysed sample was a convenience subset: 33 of 40 enrolled participants agreed to respiratory signal collection, and three had technical problems. Liquid consistencies were presented in a fixed order from thin to extremely thick, which may limit interpretation of consistency effects. A wide age range was included, and the study was preliminary with a small analysed sample. Participants wore a three-sensor tongue bulb array, and the study cannot rule out that this changed swallowing function or respiratory coordination. Swallowing events were confirmed visually, not concurrently with gold standard instrumentation, and some signals were excluded, which may bias the data set toward healthier swallows. Reliability in signal identification was not completed for this study, and not all included signals were rated in duplication. Taste status was not measured genetically, and the lemon flavouring may have influenced results.

The study was funded by an RO1 grant from the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, DC011020, to the final author. That author was responsible for project design, statistical analysis, and manuscript writing. No commercial conflicts are reported in the supplied text.

Do not treat these values as normal ranges for patients with swallowing or respiratory problems, because the study included only healthy adults under 60 years and used a convenience sample.