Abstract Objective： Functional near-infrared spectroscopy(fNIRS) was used as an imaging tool to study cerebral cortex activation and lateralization during swallowing related tasks. Method： A total of 22 healthy subjects were enrolled to perform chewing and tongue tip sliding tasks during fNIRS measure. The brain regions activated by the task were analyzed and the lateralization index of different brain regions was calculated. Result： Bilateral primary motor cortex(PMC), premotor and supplementary motor cortex(pSMC), primary somatosensory cortex(PSC) and left supramarginal gyrus(SMG) were significantly activated. Right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex(DLPFC), frontal eye fields(FEF), superior temporal gyrus(STG), middle temporal gyrus(MTG), frontopolar area(FPA) and pars triangularis(PTG) were also found to be activated in the chewing task. Brain activation exhibited lateralized mode in whole cortex and PMC, pSMC, PSC and other brain regions. Left-lateral activation of several brain regions was demonstrated in the chewing task, while right-lateral activation of brain regions was found in the tongue tip sliding task. The lateralization between the left or right hemispheres of the whole brain has variability and had no correlation with handedness. Conclusion： fNIRS can be used to study the brain function related to swallowing. To some extent, it suggests the cortical central of swallowing function and shows a lateralization activation pattern in healthy people.