Brain functional network for chewing of gum

Recent studies showed that gum-chewing induced significant increases in cerebral blood flow and blood-oxygenation level in the widespread brain regions. However, little is known about the underlying mechanism of chewing-induced regional interconnection and interaction within the brain. In this study, we investigated the human brain functional network during chewing of gum by using functional magnetic resonance imaging and complex network theory. Adjacency matrix of the network was constructed by the active voxels of chewing-related. The global statistical properties of the network revealed the brain functional network for chewing of gum had small-world effect and scale-free property. Computing the degree and betweenness which belong to the centrality indices, we found that the neocortical hubs of the network were distributed in the sense and motor cortex, and the nodes in the thalamus and lentiform nucleus held the largest betweenness. The sense and motor cortices as well as thalamus and lentiform nucleus have the important roles in dispatch and transfer information of network.