Auditory Electrooculogram-based Communication System for ALS Patients in Transition from Locked-in to Complete Locked-in State
Auditory Electrooculogram-based Communication System for ALS Patients in Transition from Locked-in to Complete Locked-in State
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DOI：
10.1038/s41598-020-65333-1
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发表时间：
2020-05-21
影响因子：
4.6
通讯作者：
Chaudhary, Ujwal
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Tonin, Alessandro;Jaramillo-Gonzalez, Andres;Chaudhary, Ujwal
从闭锁过渡的患者（即，几乎完全瘫痪的状态，具有随意的眼球运动控制、眼睛眨眼或面部肌肉抽搐，以及保留的意识）到完全锁定状态（即，完全瘫痪，包括眼肌麻痹和凝视丧失，加上意识保留，没有任何交流手段。为了使此类患者能够进行交流，开发了一种基于眼电图（EOG）的听觉交流系统。4名肌萎缩侧索硬化症患者从锁定状态过渡到完全锁定状态，ALSFRS-R评分为0，无法使用眼动仪进行交流，学习使用基于听觉EOG的交流系统。患者的眼球运动幅度在+/- 200 mu V和+/- 40 mu V之间，能够形成完整的句子，并独立自由地交流，从听觉拼写系统中选择字母。对一名患者的一年随访表明，所提出的系统在长期使用中的可行性以及拼写表现与眼动衰退之间的相关性。听觉拼写系统的结果有可能为没有凝视固定能力和低眼动幅度范围的患者群体提供一种交流手段。
Patients in the transition from locked-in (i.e., a state of almost complete paralysis with voluntary eye movement control, eye blinks or twitches of face muscles, and preserved consciousness) to complete locked-in state (i.e., total paralysis including paralysis of eye-muscles and loss of gaze-fixation, combined with preserved consciousness) are left without any means of communication. An auditory communication system based on electrooculogram (EOG) was developed to enable such patients to communicate. Four amyotrophic lateral sclerosis patients in transition from locked-in state to completely locked-in state, with ALSFRS-R score of 0, unable to use eye trackers for communication, learned to use an auditory EOG-based communication system. The patients, with eye-movement amplitude between the range of +/- 200 mu V and +/- 40 mu V, were able to form complete sentences and communicate independently and freely, selecting letters from an auditory speller system. A follow-up of one year with one patient shows the feasibility of the proposed system in long-term use and the correlation between speller performance and eye-movement decay. The results of the auditory speller system have the potential to provide a means of communication to patient populations without gaze fixation ability and with low eye-movement amplitude range.