Development of self-driven artificial tongue to aid swallowing function and soft actuator for phonetic function

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It is very difficult to reproduce normal tongue movement in the oral phase of swallowing with an artificial tongue. This study developed a novel artificial tongue to assist in swallowing. The fabric of the artificial tongue was constructed with plastic and rubber bands and was designed to reproduce tongue movement in the oral phase of swallowing. A series of movements of the artificial tongue were induced by applying slight pressure.Our artificial tongue reproduced the series of tongue movements as follows; 1. Hold the food bolus to the center of dorsum of tongue via closing mouth (trigger) + Closing the pharynx, 2. Open the pharynx via lifting base of tongue, 3. Flowing the food bolus into the opened pharynx, 4. Flowing the food bolus into laryngopharynx with pressure on the base of tongue. The trigger for the series was volitional movement. Therefore, it was considered that the artificial tongue could assist in more normal physiological swallowing.