Posterior tongue grooving in deglutition and speech: Preliminary observations

Real-time ultrasound sector scanning was used to image the posterior tongue. Depth of tongue grooving and distance of the tongue surface from the transducer face were measured in 7 normal subjects, for vowels in a standardized speech context and for dry swallows. Tongue postures for the vowels |æ| or |e| were most similar to the maximum grooving found in deglutition, which occurred approximately 300 ms prior to ultrasound evidence of initiation of the reflexive pharyngeal phase of swallowing.