A new study suggests that MRI scans of the tongue could help in the early detection and monitoring of Motor Neurone Disease (MND), a progressive neurodegenerative condition that affects nerve cells controlling muscles.
Researchers from the University of Queensland (UQ), Australia, discovered that individuals living with MND, also known as Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), who experience difficulty speaking or swallowing, tend to have smaller tongue muscles than healthy individuals.
This finding could serve as an early warning sign of the disease, according to Dr Thomas Shaw from UQ’s School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.
“There are eight interconnected muscles in the tongue, each performing unique roles that allow us to eat, swallow, and speak,” Dr Shaw explained.
MRI Scans Reveal Clues
“For people with motor neurone disease, these muscles, like many others in the body, gradually weaken and waste away. Detecting and tracking this early can help doctors and patients, especially by enabling earlier access to clinical trials,” he added.
Traditionally, examining the tongue muscles of patients has been difficult and invasive.
However, the research team analysed more than 200 historical MRI scans, including some of patients living with MND, to develop a non-invasive diagnostic approach.
“Using a combination of AI-assisted tools and advanced imaging techniques, we achieved highly precise measurements of the tongue’s muscle volume and shape,” Dr Shaw said.
“Comparative analysis revealed notable differences between scans of people with MND and those without the condition,” he added.
The study, published in the journal Computers in Biology and Medicine, also reinforced previous findings showing that patients whose MND symptoms begin in the mouth, tongue, throat, or neck muscles tend to have shorter survival times than those whose symptoms start in the limbs.
Dr Brooke-Mai Whelan, a speech pathologist from UQ’s School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, said the tongue performs thousands of precise movements daily, which often go unnoticed until they start failing.
“Identifying which tongue muscles weaken in MND can help us develop compensatory strategies, such as adapting speech patterns to rely on unaffected muscles,” Dr Whelan noted.
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