Continuous Estimation of Swallowing Motion With EMG and MMG Signals

Oropharyngeal dysphagia (OD) is a symptom of swallowing dysfunction that is associated with aspiration, severe respiratory complications, and even death. OD is a highly prevalent condition in populations including the elderly and patients with neurological diseases (e.g., stroke and Parkinson&#x...

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Main Authors: Zhenhui Guo, Ziyang Wang, Yue Wang, Weiguang Huo, Jianda Han
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: IEEE 2025-01-01
Series:IEEE Transactions on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering
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Online Access:https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10879466/
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author Zhenhui Guo
Ziyang Wang
Yue Wang
Weiguang Huo
Jianda Han
author_facet Zhenhui Guo
Ziyang Wang
Yue Wang
Weiguang Huo
Jianda Han
author_sort Zhenhui Guo
collection DOAJ
description Oropharyngeal dysphagia (OD) is a symptom of swallowing dysfunction that is associated with aspiration, severe respiratory complications, and even death. OD is a highly prevalent condition in populations including the elderly and patients with neurological diseases (e.g., stroke and Parkinson’s disease (PD)). Assessment of swallow function is crucial for managing OD, yet depends on devices for long-term monitoring during daily life and relevant methods for accurately assessing swallow function. The videofluoroscopic swallowing study (VFSS) is usually considered a gold standard method. However, it has several limitations, such as radiation exposure, the need for technical experts, high cost, and clinical use only. This study investigates the performances of electromyography (EMG) and mechanomyography (MMG) signals, which can be easily measured using wearable sensors, to continuously estimate swallowing movement. Meanwhile, three methods, i.e., Gaussian process regression (GPR), LSTM, and random forest (RF), are used for swallowing motion estimation based on EMG/MMG signals measured from six healthy subjects and a patient with PD, respectively. Moreover, a depth camera-based approach is proposed to provide the reference laryngeal displacement (i.e., the swallowing movement). The experimental results show that EMG models with three machine learning methods can accurately estimate swallowing movement. For the healthy subjects, the mean correlation coefficient (CC) is about 0.90 and the normalized root mean square error (NRMSE) is less than 0.15. For the PD patient, the CC is 0.804 and the NRMSE is 0.205 when using RF. The performance of the MMG model is comparable to that of EMG: CC/NRMSE of the LSTM model is 0.844/0.150 (healthy subjects); CC/NRMSE of RF model is 0.727/0.204 (PD patient). To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study proving that both EMG and MMG are two effective means for an accurate continuous estimation of swallowing motion, enabling the possibility of a safe and convenient evaluation and management of OD.
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spelling doaj-art-39c844e588014898ab6991a98e2ca3aa2025-08-20T03:07:37ZengIEEEIEEE Transactions on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering1534-43201558-02102025-01-013378779710.1109/TNSRE.2025.354084210879466Continuous Estimation of Swallowing Motion With EMG and MMG SignalsZhenhui Guo0Ziyang Wang1Yue Wang2Weiguang Huo3https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7370-5189Jianda Han4https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9664-4534College of Artificial Intelligence, Tianjin Key Laboratory of Intelligent Robotics, Nankai University, Tianjin, ChinaCollege of Artificial Intelligence, Tianjin Key Laboratory of Intelligent Robotics, Nankai University, Tianjin, ChinaDepartment of Rehabilitation Medicine, Tianjin Huanhu Hospital, Tianjin, ChinaCollege of Artificial Intelligence, Tianjin Key Laboratory of Intelligent Robotics, Nankai University, Tianjin, ChinaCollege of Artificial Intelligence, Tianjin Key Laboratory of Intelligent Robotics, Nankai University, Tianjin, ChinaOropharyngeal dysphagia (OD) is a symptom of swallowing dysfunction that is associated with aspiration, severe respiratory complications, and even death. OD is a highly prevalent condition in populations including the elderly and patients with neurological diseases (e.g., stroke and Parkinson’s disease (PD)). Assessment of swallow function is crucial for managing OD, yet depends on devices for long-term monitoring during daily life and relevant methods for accurately assessing swallow function. The videofluoroscopic swallowing study (VFSS) is usually considered a gold standard method. However, it has several limitations, such as radiation exposure, the need for technical experts, high cost, and clinical use only. This study investigates the performances of electromyography (EMG) and mechanomyography (MMG) signals, which can be easily measured using wearable sensors, to continuously estimate swallowing movement. Meanwhile, three methods, i.e., Gaussian process regression (GPR), LSTM, and random forest (RF), are used for swallowing motion estimation based on EMG/MMG signals measured from six healthy subjects and a patient with PD, respectively. Moreover, a depth camera-based approach is proposed to provide the reference laryngeal displacement (i.e., the swallowing movement). The experimental results show that EMG models with three machine learning methods can accurately estimate swallowing movement. For the healthy subjects, the mean correlation coefficient (CC) is about 0.90 and the normalized root mean square error (NRMSE) is less than 0.15. For the PD patient, the CC is 0.804 and the NRMSE is 0.205 when using RF. The performance of the MMG model is comparable to that of EMG: CC/NRMSE of the LSTM model is 0.844/0.150 (healthy subjects); CC/NRMSE of RF model is 0.727/0.204 (PD patient). To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study proving that both EMG and MMG are two effective means for an accurate continuous estimation of swallowing motion, enabling the possibility of a safe and convenient evaluation and management of OD.https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10879466/EMGMMGlaryngeal displacementmotion estimation
spellingShingle Zhenhui Guo
Ziyang Wang
Yue Wang
Weiguang Huo
Jianda Han
Continuous Estimation of Swallowing Motion With EMG and MMG Signals
IEEE Transactions on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering
EMG
MMG
laryngeal displacement
motion estimation
title Continuous Estimation of Swallowing Motion With EMG and MMG Signals
title_full Continuous Estimation of Swallowing Motion With EMG and MMG Signals
title_fullStr Continuous Estimation of Swallowing Motion With EMG and MMG Signals
title_full_unstemmed Continuous Estimation of Swallowing Motion With EMG and MMG Signals
title_short Continuous Estimation of Swallowing Motion With EMG and MMG Signals
title_sort continuous estimation of swallowing motion with emg and mmg signals
topic EMG
MMG
laryngeal displacement
motion estimation
url https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10879466/
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AT weiguanghuo continuousestimationofswallowingmotionwithemgandmmgsignals
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