Oral ability to recognize forms and oral muscular coordination ability in dentulous young and elderly adults

A study has been carried out to investigate possible between a group of dentulous young adults (average 22-5 years of age) and a group of dentulous elderly individuals (65-9 years), when attempting to recognize forms orally and to carry out tasks which demand a fine-coordination of the oral muscular apparatus. The results showed, that the older group had reduced ability for both forms of tests used in this study (RF-test for estimating the oral ability to recognize forms, and MA-test to estimate oral muscular ability). The reduced capacity of the older individuals to learn the requirements of the tests as compared with the younger ones, was especially obvious. Furthermore, individual differences in this respect were more obvious for the older than for the younger examinees. The suggestion is made that in further studies the number of trial-rounds may be reduced from three to two, certainly for older individuals and for both the RF- and the MA-test. Because of the obvious correlation between the results of the RF- and the MA-test among older individuals, it is concluded that both forms of tests may measure common or closely related factors, which are reflected by these tests.