Abstract
BackgroundTo provide an alternative motor modality for control, navigation, and communication in individuals suffering from impairment or disability in hand functions, a Tongue Drive System (TDS) has been developed that allows for real time tracking of tongue motion in an unobtrusive, wireless, and wearable device that utilizes the magnetic field generated by a miniature disk shaped magnetic tracer attached to the tip of the tongue. The purpose of the study was to compare the influence of a concurrent motor or cognitive task on various aspects of simple movement control between hand and tongue using the TDS technology.MethodsThirteen young able-bodied adults performed rapid and slow goal-directed movements of hand and tongue (with TDS) with and without a concurrent motor (hand or tongue) or cognitive (arithmetic and memory) task. Changes in reaction time, completion time, speed, correctness, accuracy, variability of displacement, and variability of time due to the addition of a concurrent task were compared between hand and tongue.ResultsThe influence of an additional concurrent task on motor performance was similar between the hand and tongue for slow movement in controlling their displacement. In rapid movement with a concurrent motor task, most aspects of motor performance were degraded in hand, while tongue speed during rapid continuous task was maintained. With a concurrent cognitive task, most aspects of motor performance were degraded in tongue, while hand accuracy during the rapid discrete task and hand speed during the rapid continuous task were maintained.ConclusionRapid goal-directed hand and tongue movements were more consistently susceptible to interference from concurrent motor and cognitive tasks, respectively, compared with the other movement.
Highlights
To provide an alternative motor modality for control, navigation, and communication in individuals suffering from impairment or disability in hand functions, a Tongue Drive System (TDS) has been developed that allows for real time tracking of tongue motion in an unobtrusive, wireless, and wearable device that utilizes the magnetic field generated by a miniature disk shaped magnetic tracer attached to the tip of the tongue
Both the reaction time and completion time were significantly longer for choice reaction tasks (Levels 2 & 3) compared with a simple reaction task both in the hand and tongue (Table 2)
In conclusion, the influence of an additional concurrent task on motor performance was distinct between the hand and tongue for rapid movement but not for slow movement
Summary
To provide an alternative motor modality for control, navigation, and communication in individuals suffering from impairment or disability in hand functions, a Tongue Drive System (TDS) has been developed that allows for real time tracking of tongue motion in an unobtrusive, wireless, and wearable device that utilizes the magnetic field generated by a miniature disk shaped magnetic tracer attached to the tip of the tongue. In individuals who have impaired or disabled motor functions in one of the hands (e.g., unilateral amputation, hemiplegia, and incomplete spinal cord injury), an alternative to the hand is required for performing concurrent motor tasks that are usually accomplished with two hands in able-bodied individuals. They would need a functional actuator that can. The tongue appears to be appropriate as a new control interface To this end, a few tongue-operated assistive technologies, such as the Tongue-Touch-Keypad [3], Jouse2 [4] and Integra Mouse [5], have been developed. The architecture and performance evaluation of the TDS by able-bodied and disabled subjects have been reported elsewhere [6,7,8,9,10]
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