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Effect of the submandibular push exercise using visual feedback from pressure sensor: an electromyography study.
Sungwon Park1, Joo Young Cho1, Byung Joo Lee1
1Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Daegu Fatima Hospital, Daegu, Republic of Korea.
Scientific Reports
|July 18, 2020
Summary
The new submandibular push exercise effectively strengthens suprahyoid and infrahyoid muscles during swallowing exercises. This method shows greater muscle selectivity compared to Shaker and CTAR exercises, offering a promising supplementary approach for swallowing difficulties.
Area of Science:
- Physiology
- Rehabilitation Medicine
- Biomechanics
Background:
- Dysphagia, or difficulty swallowing, affects numerous individuals, often stemming from impaired muscle function.
- Conventional swallowing exercises like the Shaker exercise aim to strengthen relevant muscles, but may lack selectivity.
- The suprahyoid and infrahyoid muscles play crucial roles in the swallowing mechanism.
Purpose of the Study:
- To introduce and evaluate a novel exercise, the submandibular push exercise, for strengthening swallowing muscles.
- To compare the muscle activity of suprahyoid and infrahyoid muscles during the submandibular push, Shaker, and CTAR exercises.
- To assess the selectivity of the submandibular push exercise by measuring sternocleidomastoid (SCM) muscle activity.
Main Methods:
- Surface electromyography (sEMG) was used to measure muscle activation (Root Mean Square - RMS) in suprahyoid, infrahyoid, and SCM muscles.
- Twenty healthy participants and fifteen patients with dysphagia performed three exercises: Shaker, CTAR, and submandibular push.
- Statistical analysis, including repeated ANOVA with Tukey's post hoc test, was employed to compare muscle activity across exercises.
Main Results:
- In healthy individuals, the submandibular push exercise elicited significantly higher RMS values in suprahyoid and infrahyoid muscles compared to Shaker and CTAR exercises.
- In dysphagia patients, both submandibular push and Shaker exercises showed significantly higher RMS values in suprahyoid and infrahyoid muscles than CTAR, with no significant difference between submandibular push and Shaker.
- SCM muscle activity was significantly lower during the submandibular push exercise compared to the Shaker exercise in both groups.
Conclusions:
- The submandibular push exercise demonstrates superior selectivity for suprahyoid and infrahyoid muscle contraction.
- This exercise, potentially enhanced with visual feedback, could serve as an effective supplementary method for conventional swallowing therapies.
- Further research is warranted to confirm its efficacy in improving actual swallowing function.
