The role of the gingiva in the tactile perception of teeth is unclear, and the physiological basis of tooth tactile function needs to be examined at the cortical response level. In the presented study, gingiva from the upper left canine was removed under local anesthesia from five cats. Intrinsic signal optical imaging was used to measure population response characteristics of the cat oral-related cortex when punctate mechanical stimuli were separately applied to the left gingiva-stripped canine and right intact canine. Then, their response characteristics were compared. There were no significant differences in the cortical response strength between the anesthetized and unanesthetized canines. Signal strength of the gingiva-stripped tooth was significantly weaker than that of the intact tooth at low stimulus strength. However, no significant differences between the gingiva-stripped tooth and intact tooth were found after saturation. Based on the evoked cortical responses, the gingiva is involved in low-intensity tactile perception of teeth, which could explain the reason why chronic gingivitis results in the paresthesia of natural teeth.

牙龈在牙齿触觉感知中的作用尚不清楚，牙齿触觉功能的生理基础需要在皮质反应水平进行考察。在本研究中，在局部麻醉下从五只猫身上取出左上犬齿的牙龈。当点状机械刺激分别应用于左侧牙龈剥离犬和右侧完整犬齿时，内在信号光学成像用于测量猫口腔相关皮层的群体反应特征。然后，比较它们的响应特性。麻醉和未麻醉的犬之间的皮层反应强度没有显着差异。在低刺激强度下，牙龈剥离牙齿的信号强度明显弱于完整牙齿的信号强度。然而，饱和后牙龈剥离的牙齿和完整的牙齿之间没有显着差异。基于诱发的皮层反应，牙龈参与了牙齿的低强度触觉感知，这可以解释慢性牙龈炎导致天然牙齿感觉异常的原因。