Friedman R N, McMillan G R, Kincaid J C, Buschbacher R M
Section of Neurological Surgery, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis 46202-5112, USA.
J Spinal Cord Med. 1999 Fall;22(3):167-72. doi: 10.1080/10790268.1999.11719566.
In devastating neurological disorders, such as quadriplegia resulting from high-level spinal cord injury, it is essential to focus on functions that have been spared and optimally exploit them to enhance the individual's quality of life. It follows that certain muscles, which prior to the paralysis of much of the rest of the body seemed to have no useful function, might be used to provide unique signals to control assistive devices. This report presents preliminary electrophysiological data demonstrating potentially useful myoelectrical signals from 3 functionally vestigial muscles in humans; the posterior, anterior, and superior auricular muscles. In phylogenetically lower species, these muscles serve to position the ear to enhance hearing. The auricular muscles receive their major innervation from cranial nerve VII and should not be compromised by even high-level spinal cord lesions. In this study, it was found that the muscles could be voluntarily activated and, by standard surface-electrode recording, had potentials ranging to 680 microV in amplitude. Posterior auricular muscle potentials were used to command a paddle in a computer ping-pong task that employed a CyberLink interface. The t values for accuracy scores and ball hits were both significant at the p = .0001 level. These facts indicate that the auricular muscles may be useful for controlling assistive devices.
在诸如高位脊髓损伤导致的四肢瘫痪等严重神经系统疾病中，关注未受影响的功能并对其进行最佳利用以提高个体生活质量至关重要。由此可见，某些肌肉在身体其他大部分部位瘫痪之前似乎没有有用的功能，但可能可用于提供独特信号来控制辅助设备。本报告展示了初步电生理数据，证明来自人类3块功能上退化的肌肉（耳后肌、耳前肌和耳上肌）的肌电信号可能具有实用价值。在进化程度较低的物种中，这些肌肉用于定位耳朵以增强听力。耳肌主要由颅神经VII支配，即使是高位脊髓损伤也不会影响其功能。在本研究中，发现这些肌肉可以被自主激活，通过标准表面电极记录，其电位幅度可达680微伏。耳后肌电位被用于在一项使用讯连科技接口的电脑乒乓球任务中控制球拍。准确率得分和击球次数的t值在p = 0.0001水平上均具有显著性。这些事实表明，耳肌可能对控制辅助设备有用。
