Sanchez Research Lab, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT 84112-9206, United States of America.
Physiol Meas. 2021 May 13;42(4). doi: 10.1088/1361-6579/abed36.
Electrophysiological assessment of the tongue volume conduction properties (VCPs) using our novel multi-electrode user tongue array (UTA) depressor has the promise to serve as a biomarker in patients with bulbar dysfunction. However, whetherdata collected using the UTA depressor accurately reflect the tongue VCPs remains unknown.To address this question, we performedsimulations of the depressor with an accurate anatomical tongue finite element model (FEM) using healthy human tongue VCP values, namely the conductivity and the relative permittivity, in the sagittal plane (i.e. longitudinal direction) and axial and coronal planes (i.e. transverse directions). We then established the relationship between tongue VCP values simulated from our model to measured human data.Experimental versus simulated tongue VCP values including their spatial variation were in good agreement with differences well within the variability of the experimental results. Tongue FEM simulations corroborate the feasibility of our UTA depressor in assessing tongue VCPs.The UTA depressor is a new non-invasive and safe tool to measure tongue VCPs. These electrical properties reflect the tongue's ionic composition and cellular membrane integrity and could serve as a novel electrophysiological biomarker in neurological disorders affecting the tongue.
使用我们新型的多电极用户舌阵列 (UTA) 压舌器对舌体容积传导特性 (VCPs) 进行电生理评估有望成为球部功能障碍患者的生物标志物。然而,使用 UTA 压舌器收集的数据是否准确反映舌 VCPs 尚不清楚。为了解决这个问题,我们使用健康人舌 VCP 值(即电导率和相对介电常数)在矢状面(即纵向)和轴面和冠状面(即横向)进行了带有准确解剖舌有限元模型 (FEM) 的压舌器模拟。然后,我们建立了从我们的模型模拟的舌 VCP 值与测量的人体数据之间的关系。实验与模拟舌 VCP 值及其空间变化之间的差异与实验结果的可变性内的差异很好地吻合。舌 FEM 模拟证实了我们的 UTA 压舌器评估舌 VCPs 的可行性。UTA 压舌器是一种新的非侵入性和安全的测量舌 VCPs 的工具。这些电特性反映了舌的离子组成和细胞膜完整性,可作为影响舌的神经障碍的新型电生理生物标志物。