Quantification of the Swallowing Mechanism Through Muscle Synergy Analysis

Decreased swallowing function increases the risk of choking and aspiration pneumonia. Videofluoroscopy and computed tomography allow for detailed observation of the swallowing movements but have radiation risks. Therefore, we developed a method using surface electromyography (sEMG) to noninvasively assess swallowing function without radiation exposure. A 44-channel flexible sEMG sensor was used to measure the sEMG signals of the hyoid muscles during swallowing in 14 healthy young adult and 14 elderly subjects. Muscle synergy analysis was performed to extract the muscle synergies from the sEMG signals, and the three synergies were extracted from the hyoid muscle activities during the swallowing experiments. The experimental results showed that the three synergies represent the oral, early pharyngeal, and late pharyngeal swallowing phases and that swallowing strength is tuned by the strength of the muscle activities, whereas swallowing volume is controlled by adjusting muscle activation timing. In addition, the timing of the swallowing reflex is slower in elderly individuals. The results confirm that the proposed approach successfully quantifies swallowing function from sEMG signals, mapping the signals to the swallowing phases.