Neuromuscular control of the human tongue

描述（由申请人提供）：舌头是一个复杂的肌肉器官，对于吞咽、呼吸、说话和咀嚼等口腔运动行为至关重要。舌头进行的随意运动的惊人复杂性和精确性取决于内在（起源和插入舌体内）和外在（附着在骨头上并插入舌根）舌头肌肉的协调。直到最近，几乎所有舌肌功能（无论是言语、呼吸还是吞咽）的研究都涉及整个肌肉肌电图（EMG）活动的研究。最近，我们将健康人类受试者中与呼吸相关的舌肌和运动单位活动描述为睡眠/觉醒和缓慢意志运动的函数。这项工作的结果提供了对语言运动功能的全新见解，并为开始研究提供了一个平台，旨在确定如何在更复杂的意志行为中控制舌头肌肉。当前的应用程序在主题上建立在 PI 之前的工作基础上，但在纳入语音生成过程的关键要素方面与之前的调查有所不同。具体来说，我们建议检查舌头肌肉和运动单位的活动，以及这些活动被呼吸、发声（喉）和/或上喉（口腔发音）子系统中产生的输入调节的可能性。将肌肉和 MU 活动分别理解为这些影响的函数，并在连续叠加时，是理解舌肌和运动单位活动如何在更复杂的意志行为（即人类言语产生）中进行调节的逻辑第一步。 公共健康相关性：人类的舌头可能是所有运动系统中最复杂、最具挑战性且最不为人所知的系统之一。该申请概述了一个计划，以确定中枢神经系统控制言语舌头运动的基本过程。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The tongue is a complex muscular organ that is critical for oro-motor behaviors such as swallowing, breathing, speaking and chewing. The astonishing complexity and precision of the voluntary movements performed by the tongue depend upon the coordination of intrinsic (origin and insertion within the body of the tongue) and extrinsic (attached to bone and inserted into the base of tongue) tongue muscles. Until recently, almost all studies of lingual muscle function whether in speech, respiration or deglutition have concerned themselves with the study of whole muscle electromyographic (EMG) activities. Recently, we characterized respiratory-related tongue muscle and motor unit activities in healthy human subjects as a function of sleep/wake and in slow volitional movements. The results of this work provided de novo insights into lingual motor function and a platform from which to begin studies aimed at identifying how tongue muscles are controlled in more complex volitional behaviors. The current application builds thematically on previous work by the PI and yet departs from previous investigations in incorporating critical elements of the speech production process. Specifically, we propose to examine tongue muscle and motor unit activities and the potential for these activities to be modulated by inputs arising in the respiratory, phonatory (laryngeal) and/or supralaryngeal (oral- articulatory) subsystems. Understanding muscle and MU activities as a function of these influences separately and when successively overlaid is a logical first-step toward understanding how tongue muscle and motor unit activities are modulated in the more complex volitional behavior that is human speech production. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: The human tongue is perhaps one of the most complex, challenging, and least understood of all motor systems. This application outlines a plan to identify the fundamental processes by which the central nervous system controls tongue movement for speech.