CAREER: Functional Electrical Stimulation to Aid Phonation in the Presence of Unilateral Vocal Fold Paralysis

职业：功能性电刺激在单侧声带麻痹的情况下帮助发声

• 批准号: 1055315
• 负责人: Alexander Leonessa
• 金额: $ 48万
• 依托单位: Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2011
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2011-09-01 至 2017-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1055315&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: CAREER; Functional; Electrical; Stimulation; Aid

Leonessa1055315The objective of the proposed CAREER program is to engage and educate undergraduate and graduatestudents in the multidisciplinary field of bioengineering with particular focus on the understanding and control of muscle behavior using functional electrical stimulation. The proposed plan includes theoretical analysis, experimental investigation, and course development. The proposed research component aims to develop and validate a framework that will help to implement an efficient Functional electrical stimulation (FES) controller for human vocalization purposes. This framework will enable control of paralyzed vocal folds improving the ability of patients affected by unilateral vocal fold paralysis to communicate effectively. In a longer term, the PI?s plan is to considerably improve the quality of life of patients with unilateral and bilateral vocal fold paralysis. The principle of FES is to use surface or implantable electrodes to generate pulses of current in intact motor neurons, thereby inducing contraction of these muscles and corresponding movement. Several challenges hinder the application of closed-loop FES outside of research labs, such as the highly nonlinear and time-varying characteristics of muscles. Furthermore, a stimulated muscle changes when fatigue occurs and individual muscle models are different. Even more challenging is the fact that there is a significant delay between stimulation and muscle contraction, adding to the processing and transmission delays in the electrical stimulation system. The PI proposes to address the closed-loop FES problem using an Output-Based Reference Control approach. The development of a robust control strategy in cooperation with voice-driven data acquisition and a novel electrode array for stimulation purposes will provide a framework for guiding rehabilitation strategies for specific impairments. Through the collaboration with rehabilitation clinicians at Wake Forest, the PI will apply the techniques developed in this proposal to specific patient populations as a proof ofconcept.Intellectual Merit. The proposed activity will extend current nonlinear control techniques, such as backstepping, extremum seeking, Kalman filtering, and model reference control, to account for time delays, actuator amplitude and rate saturation limitations, and partial and noisy measurements, thereby substantially increasing the practical applicability of such algorithms. The real-time implementation and the requirements that the FES equipment is easy to setup and simple to use by therapists and patients add additional constraints to the control structure, which needs to be robust yet not overly complicated. The intellectual merit of this effort also lies in the opportunity to use these tools to advance understanding of the dynamic behavior of muscles and to investigate the possibility of controlling this behavior using feedback control techniques. The proposed activity will explore creative, original, and potentially transformative concepts by considering an active, minimally invasive, closed loop control system for vocalization purposes. Breathing and swallowing have received a lot of attention for patients with vocal fold paralysis, but vocalization is still considered an open problem with unresolved issued due to the complexity of the larynx and the difficulties in stimulating the relevant muscles, without invasive surgeries, given their depth in the neck. The proposed development of a robust control strategy in cooperation with voice-driven data acquisition and a novel electrode array for stimulation purposes will provide a solution to these issues.Broader Impact. The proposed research offers many potential benefits to society, including the possibility of improving the quality of life for patients with paralysis, as well as individuals with other neuromuscular disability including traumatic brain injury, multiple sclerosis, cerebral palsy, and Parkinson?s disease. Development of a robust control strategy in cooperation with muscle-driven simulations of movement will provide a framework for guiding rehabilitation strategies for specific impairments. Through potential future collaborations with rehabilitation researchers and clinicians, the PI plans to apply the techniques developed in this proposal to specific patient populations. The proposed activity will advance discovery and understanding of muscle dynamics while promoting teaching, training, and learning through the development of new courses as well as several camps and workshops targeting both youths and teachers. The participation of underrepresented groups is guaranteed by specifically addressing summer camps for female students as well as organizing a new summer camp dedicated to students with disabilities. The proposed effort will enhance the infrastructure for research by establishing partnerships with the medical community at Wake Forest University. From an educational point of view, the partnership and training of K12 teachers and implementation of state of the art teaching techniques (such the Universal Design for Instruction) will enhance the PI's ability to expose younger students and minorities to the field of bioengineering and several other activities. The results obtained through the proposed effort will be disseminated through the standard channels, such as conference and journal papers, but will also be made available using dedicated websites such as Connexions and the National Science Digital Library.

拟议的职业计划的目标是吸引和教育生物工程多学科领域的本科生和研究生，特别侧重于利用功能性电刺激理解和控制肌肉行为。提出的方案包括理论分析、实验调查和课程开发。拟议的研究部分旨在开发和验证一个框架，该框架将有助于实现用于人类发声目的的有效功能性电刺激（FES）控制器。该框架将能够控制瘫痪的声带，提高单侧声带瘫痪患者有效沟通的能力。从长远来看，PI？S的计划是显著改善单侧和双侧声带麻痹患者的生活质量。FES的原理是利用表面电极或植入式电极在完整的运动神经元中产生电流脉冲，从而诱导这些肌肉的收缩和相应的运动。一些挑战阻碍了闭环FES在研究实验室之外的应用，例如肌肉的高度非线性和时变特性。此外，当疲劳发生时，受刺激的肌肉会发生变化，个体肌肉模型也不同。更具有挑战性的是，在刺激和肌肉收缩之间存在明显的延迟，这增加了电刺激系统的处理和传输延迟。PI建议使用基于输出的参考控制方法来解决闭环FES问题。与语音驱动数据采集和用于刺激目的的新型电极阵列合作开发的鲁棒控制策略将为指导特定损伤的康复策略提供框架。通过与维克森林大学的康复临床医生的合作，PI将把该提案中开发的技术应用于特定的患者群体，作为概念的证明。知识价值。提出的活动将扩展当前的非线性控制技术，如反演、极值搜索、卡尔曼滤波和模型参考控制，以考虑时间延迟、执行器幅度和速率饱和限制以及部分和噪声测量，从而大大提高此类算法的实际适用性。实时实现以及FES设备易于设置和治疗师和患者简单使用的要求为控制结构增加了额外的约束，控制结构需要鲁棒性但不能过于复杂。这项工作的智力价值还在于有机会使用这些工具来推进对肌肉动态行为的理解，并研究使用反馈控制技术控制这种行为的可能性。提议的活动将通过考虑主动、微创、闭环控制系统的发声目的，探索创造性、原创性和潜在的变革概念。声带麻痹患者的呼吸和吞咽受到了很多关注，但发声仍然被认为是一个悬而未决的问题，因为喉部的复杂性和刺激相关肌肉的困难，没有侵入性手术，因为喉部在颈部的深度。建议开发一种鲁棒控制策略，与语音驱动数据采集和用于刺激目的的新型电极阵列合作，将为这些问题提供解决方案。更广泛的影响。拟议的研究为社会提供了许多潜在的好处，包括可能改善瘫痪患者的生活质量，以及其他神经肌肉残疾患者的生活质量，包括创伤性脑损伤、多发性硬化症、脑瘫和帕金森？年代的疾病。与肌肉驱动的运动模拟合作开发稳健的控制策略将为指导特定损伤的康复策略提供框架。通过与康复研究人员和临床医生的潜在未来合作，PI计划将本提案中开发的技术应用于特定的患者群体。拟议的活动将促进对肌肉动力学的发现和理解，同时通过开发新课程以及针对青年和教师的几个营地和讲习班来促进教学，训练和学习。通过专门针对女学生的夏令营以及组织一个专门针对残疾学生的新夏令营，保证了代表性不足群体的参与。拟议的努力将通过与维克森林大学的医学界建立伙伴关系来加强研究的基础设施。从教育的角度来看，K12教师的合作和培训以及最先进的教学技术（如通用教学设计）的实施将提高PI的能力，使年轻学生和少数民族接触到生物工程领域和其他一些活动。通过提议的努力获得的结果将通过会议和期刊论文等标准渠道传播，但也将通过诸如Connexions和国家科学数字图书馆等专门网站提供。