The Development and Refinement of Neural Regulation of Chest Wall Motor Control for Voluntary Breathing During Simple and Complex Tasks

人类言语需要复杂的运动控制，包括呼吸、喉部、咽部和言语机制的运动子系统。特别感兴趣的是呼吸子系统的调节，为声带提供气流和压力，以产生声音。大脑通过一种叫做皮质脊髓束的神经通路来控制这种自主呼吸。我的研究项目广泛研究了健康儿童和成人的非言语和言语任务的胸壁运动。然而，在非言语和言语任务中，胸壁肌肉的皮质控制尚未被研究和理解。我提出的研究将在4 - 30岁的健康个体中研究简单和复杂的非言语和言语任务中肺容量、气管压力和口腔压力的神经肌肉控制。在我们的三项研究中，我们将测量胸壁运动和肌肉活动。将对这些数据进行特殊的信号分析，以深入了解胸壁肌肉是如何受大脑控制的，与呼吸运动和任务复杂性有关。第一项研究将探讨运动皮层如何控制肺容量和胸壁压力产生需求。成年参与者将执行标准化任务的组合，需要低和高肺容量以及低和高气管和口腔压力目标。使用相同的实验方案，第二项研究将调查儿童和青少年胸壁肌肉皮质控制的发展。第三项研究旨在通过经颅直流电刺激成人通过运动皮层电刺激皮质-脊髓通路。这项研究将帮助我们确定皮层对非言语和言语任务控制的适应性。这三项研究的结果将为神经通路如何控制自主呼吸及其发展提供深入的了解。本研究对理解和康复影响语音机制呼吸子系统的慢性神经肌肉疾病患者具有重要意义。

Human speech requires complex motor control of the respiratory, laryngeal, pharyngeal, and oromotor subsystems of the speech mechanism. Of particular interest is the regulation of the breathing subsystem to provide airflow and pressure to the vocal folds for the production of sound. The brain, via a neural pathway called the corticospinal tract, controls this type of voluntary breathing. My research program has extensively studied chest wall movement for non-speech and speech tasks in healthy children and adults. However, the cortical control of the chest wall muscles during non-speech and speech tasks has not been studied and is not understood. My proposed research will investigate the neuromuscular control of lung volume, tracheal pressure and oral pressure for simple and complex non-speech and speech tasks in healthy individuals ranging in age from 4 to 30 years. In our three studies, we will measure chest wall movement and muscle activity. Special signal analyses will be performed on these data to provide an in-depth understanding of how muscles of the chest wall are controlled by the brain in relation to breathing movements and task complexity. The first study will address how lung volume and chest wall pressure generation requirements are controlled by the motor cortex. Adult participants will perform combinations of standardized tasks requiring low and high lung volumes in combination with low and high tracheal and oral pressure targets. Using the same experimental protocol, the second study will investigate the development of cortical control of chest wall muscles in children and adolescents. The third study has been designed to electrically stimulate the corticospinal pathway via the motor cortex using transcranial direct current stimulation on adults. This study will help us determine cortical adaptability for the control of non-speech and speech tasks. The results of these three studies will provide an in-depth understanding of how the neural pathway controls voluntary breathing and its development. This research has important implications for understanding and rehabilitating individuals with chronic neuromuscular disorders affecting the respiratory subsystem of the speech mechanism.