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，对吞咽、呼吸、说话和咀嚼等口腔运动行为至关重要。舌头自主运动的惊人复杂性和精确性依赖于内在（舌头的起源和插入）和外在（与骨头相连并插入舌根）舌肌的协调。直到最近，几乎所有关于舌肌功能的研究，无论是在说话、呼吸还是吞咽方面，都涉及对全肌肌电图（EMG）活动的研究。最近，我们研究了健康受试者呼吸相关的舌肌和运动单元活动，将其作为睡眠/清醒和缓慢意志运动的功能。这项工作的结果为舌运动功能提供了全新的见解，并为开始旨在确定舌肌如何在更复杂的意志行为中受到控制的研究提供了一个平台。目前的应用程序以PI以前的工作为主题，但在结合语音生产过程的关键要素方面偏离了以前的调查。具体来说，我们建议检查舌肌和运动单元的活动，以及这些活动被呼吸、发音（喉部）和/或咽上（口腔-发音）子系统中产生的输入调节的可能性。理解肌肉和MU活动作为这些影响的功能是合乎逻辑的第一步，理解舌肌和运动单位活动是如何在人类语言产生的更复杂的意志行为中被调节的。

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.