Barlow, S.M. & Burton, M.K. (1990). Ramp-and-hold force control in the upper and lower lips: Developing new neuromotor assessment applications in traumatically brain injured adults. Journal of Speech and Hearing Research, 33,660-675.
Type of
Study
Preliminary research study with controls
Subjects 4 males; ages 17, 19, 26, and 31; 1, 16, 1, and 2 years post-injury
20 males, 20 males; ages 18-36; normal controls
Diagnoses Motor impairments in the lower face
Speech
Condition
Dysarthria
Purpose To demonstrate refinements in protocol development, transducer design, and the application of specially written digital signal processing algorithms intended to characterize several parameter of force control.
To establish normalized ramp-and-hold force data.

To obtain ramp-and-hold force data for people with TBI.
Methods Subjects produced lip force as fast as possible while being accurate for ten contractions for each target force level (.25, .5, 1, 2).
Three maximum contractions were sampled for each structure.

The upper lip and lower lip were test separately.
Results Normative data was obtained from the 40 normal adults.
TBI subjects have differences in magnitude and time course of force instability following force attainment.

All TBI subjects had some force control impairment for one or both lips.

The TBI subjects with less intelligibility were more severely impaired for force control.

Hold phase weakness was not as problematic as force control.
Treatment
Implications
Physiology assessment will expand knowledge about how brain damage affects the cranial and spinal motor systems.
 
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