| Project/Area Number |
17500350
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Section | 一般 |
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| Research Field |
Rehabilitation science/Welfare engineering
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| Research Institution | University of Toyama |
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Principal Investigator |
YAMAGUCHI Masaki University of Toyama, Life, Information and System Sciences, Graduate School of Science and Engineering for Research, University of Toyama, Associate Professor, 大学院理工学研究部, 助教授 (50272638)
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| Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha) |
TAKEDA Kazunori University of Tsukuba, Institute of Disability Sciences, Department of Pediatrics, Associate Professor, 大学院人間総合科学研究科, 助教授 (90261768)
TAKAI Noriyasu Osaka Dental University, Department of Physiology, Assistant Professor, 歯学部, 助手 (90163154)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2005 – 2006
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| Project Status |
Completed (Fiscal Year 2006)
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| Budget Amount *help |
¥3,500,000 (Direct Cost: ¥3,500,000)
Fiscal Year 2006: ¥1,500,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,500,000)
Fiscal Year 2005: ¥2,000,000 (Direct Cost: ¥2,000,000)
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| Keywords | biomarker / sensor / sympathetic nervous system / saliva / children with severe motor and intellectual disabilities / emotion / stress / measurement |
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| Research Abstract |
Children with severe motor and intellectual disabilities (SMID) have an IQ of less than 35 and their physical disability is too severe for them to move around voluntarily, so much so, that they remain in bed or barely sit up. We have been attempting to develop a new noninvasive hand-held monitor for sympathetic nerve activity based on the medical observation which shows that the activity of salivary alpha-amylase alters in response to changes in the activity of the sympathetic nervous system. The aim of this study is to establish for a nonverbal communication method for SMID children by monitoring the changes in their sympathetic nerve activity. In order to achieve this goal, we have developed, as a basic tool, an evaluation model with which we can measure the emotional status of humans, a so-called human emotion monitoring system, and have examined its efficacy in clinical trials.
Children with SMID requiring frequent exchanges of gastric and/or bronchial tubes on a daily basis were th
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e subjects of the study. The salivary amylase activity (sAMY) and heart rate of the children were measured simultaneously both before and after treatment (exchange). It was observed that the sAMY increased significantly after treatment (tube exchange) with a mean increase of 70%. This increase was shown to be more than twice that of the heart rate and to be highly correlated with the intensity of pain determined by structural equation modeling (SEM). Moreover, in order to investigate the possibility of detecting the physiological changes in children with SMID using sAMY, we quantitatively examined and compared the stressor-induced physiological reactions of children with SMID with normal healthy subjects. As a result, it was found that there was no significant difference in the absolute values of the biomarker (sAMY) between children with SMID and healthy subjects. However, there was a suggestion that the response in the children with SMID was slightly smaller than healthy subjects.
The current study suggests that a novel, nonverbal communication method could be developed for children with SMID. Thus, the results of the current study have been reported in 5 publications in scientific journals and presentations at national meetings. In addition, we have applied for a patent for the method we have developed for analyzing sAMY. We have great expectations that the results in the current study will not only assist children with SMID in recovering their physical and intellectual functions and prevent deformation of their bodies, but will also improve their quality of life (QOL) as well as educate their family in providing informed consent. Less
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