A Two-step Training Paradigm for Voluntary Control of the Peri-auricular Muscles
Condition: Non-disabled Volunteers; Lacking Voluntary Control of Ear Muscles
Study type: Interventional
Phase: Early Phase 1

Summary: 
      The current study intends to test the effectiveness of a two-step training paradigm for a set
      of skeletal muscles, which are above and behind the external portion of the ear
      (Peri-auricular muscles).
    

Detailed description: 
      Survivors of spinal cord injury (SCI) usually have severe mobility limitation due to their
      paralysis.In order to improve the independence of living for those patients, scientists and
      engineers invented many different types of assistive devices, such as breath controlled "sip
      and puff" devices, speech controlled devices, eye movement controlled devices, and head
      movement controlled devices. However, one limitation of the previous designs is that they all
      require usurping the intact function of a functional organ like mouth or eyes. A recent
      design by Reach Bionic's company takes advantage of a set of ear muscles-the peri-auricular
      muscles-that are present in more than 95% of the population, but do not serve any physiologic
      function in humans. These muscles are innervated by branches of cranial nerves that are
      controlled through the brain stem, above the spinal cord. Therefore, it is unlikely they will
      be affected even by a very high SCI. The design intention is to translate the ear contraction
      signal from the muscles into the meaningful control signal to direct a wheelchair or operate
      a computer cursor in a fashion to a joystick or mouse. However, since most people do not have
      the ability to voluntarily contract their ear muscles, the question remains how to best learn
      to contract our ear muscles and design an effective training paradigm.

      Since norm volunteers will have the same voluntary control of their peri-auricular muscles as
      the patients suffering from spinal cord injury, thus, the investigators are going to test the
      effectiveness of our two-step training paradigm among the healthy participants at this
      explorative stage.

      In specific, at the first step of training, participants will be asked to voluntarily
      contract their ear muscles with the facilitation of electrical stimulation. At the second
      step of training, they will take part in a computer game and will be asked to move a cursor
      to a specific target that will randomly appear on the computer screen. The cursor will be
      controlled by the electrical activities produced by the ear muscles contractions that will be
      captured by surface electromyography (EMG) signals.

      The computer game performance of each participant before and after the second step of
      training with surface EMG signals feedback and the mean surface EMG signal amplitude of the
      auricular muscles at the maximum voluntary contraction at baseline, after the first step of
      training, and after the second step of training will be compared.
    

Intervention name(s): FastStart neuromuscular electrical stimulator
Intervention type(s): Device
Other intervention name(s): Biosemi Active two EMG measurement system
Intervention model: Single Group Assignment
Masking: None (Open Label)
Primary purpose: Other