Atypical Activation of Laryngeal Somatosensory-Mmotor Cortex during Vocalization in People with Unexplained Chronic Cough

Abstract

Importance: Chronic cough (CC) affects up to 10% of the general population, yet its etiology is not well understood. Enhancing our understanding of how peripheral and central neural processes contribute to CC is essential for treatment design.

Objective: Determine whether people with CC exhibit signs of abnormal neural processing over laryngeal sensorimotor cortex during voluntary laryngeal motor activity such as vocalization.

Design: The study followed a cross-sectional design. In a single visit, electroencephalographic signals were recorded from people with CC and healthy controls during voice production.

Participants: A convenience sample of 13 individuals with chronic cough and 10 healthy age-matched controls participated.

Outcome Measures: 1) Event-related spectral perturbation over the laryngeal area of somatosensory-motor cortex between 0-30 Hz. 2) Event-related coherence as a measure of synchronous activity between somatosensory and motor cortical regions.

Results: In the CC group, the typical movement-related desynchronization over somatosensory-motor cortex during vocalization was significantly reduced across theta, alpha and beta frequency bands when compared to the control group.

Conclusions and Relevance: The typical movement-related suppression of brain oscillatory activity during vocalization is weak or absent in people with chronic cough. Thus, chronic cough affects sensorimotor cortical activity during the non-symptomatic, voluntary activation of laryngeal muscles.