# Characterization of 3D feeding kinematics and EMG of rats and laminar specific single cell encoding properties in the motor cortex

> **NIH NIH R03** · UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO · 2020 · $162,000

## Abstract

Project summary
Impaired chewing, swallowing as a result of orofacial or CNS injury or disease is a worldwide health problem
that can impact quality of life and even be life-threatening. Current rehabilitation of such impairments has
largely overlooked recent advances in neurorehabilitation of limb motor control which may explain why many
patients cannot regain normal chewing and swallowing. The oral primary motor cortex (oM1) is the main brain
region involved in the generation and control of orofacial movements. However, detailed baseline 3D
kinematics and EMGs of aerodigestive and craniofacial structure as a whole which is to be compared to the
pathological cases is lacking. Detailed characterization of modulations of local field potentials (LFPs) to gape
types remains unclear. Furthermore, detailed kinematic and EMG encoding in single unit spiking activities for
any orofacial behavior has not been performed. Lastly, relation between LFPs and muscle activities has not
been explored except for beta oscillation and tongue muscles. Thus, to fill in the gap in our knowledge, our
specific aims are: AIM 1: To characterize and quantify 3D kinematics of aerodigestive and craniofacial
structures and jaw and tongue electromyographic (EMG) activities during natural feeding in awake
rats. We will utilize our documented expertise with 3D high-speed videofluoroscopy and chronically implanted
jaw/tongue EMG electrodes. We will: (a) characterize gape cycle types (e.g., chewing, swallowing) during
feeding and how epiglottal and vocal fold open/closure are timed at each of the cycle types; and (b) perform
dimension reduction techniques on both kinematics and EMGs to obtain a set of principal movements and
EMG activities for each cycle type and transitions between cycle type. AIM 2: To relate the jaw/tongue EMG
and 3D kinematics of aerodigestive and craniofacial structures to simultaneously record neural
activities within multiple oM1 sites and layers in awake rats, and test if and how oM1 neural activity
properties are related to tongue and jaw EMG and 3D kinematics of aerodigestive and craniofacial
structures during feeding. We will utilize our documented expertise with chronically implanted microelectrode
arrays that span horizontally and vertically into oM1 layers 2/3 (mainly cortico-cortico projections) and 5/6
(mainly output projections). We will then: (a) characterize how LFP profiles are related to types of gape cycles
and their transitions between them; (b) characterize how kinematic- and EMG activities are encoded in single
unit spiking activity of oM1; and (c) characterize cortico-muscular coherence between oM1 LFPs and
jaw/tongue EMG activities for each gape type. This proposal will define a new 3D kinematic characterization of
aerodigestive and craniofacial structures during feeding and novel oM1 neural mechanisms in terms of
modulations of LFPs to gape cycles and single unit spiking activity encoding of kinematics and EMG based on
layers. Better und...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10006877
- **Project number:** 5R03DE028395-02
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO
- **Principal Investigator:** Kazutaka Takahashi
- **Activity code:** R03 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $162,000
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2019-09-04 → 2022-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10006877

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10006877, Characterization of 3D feeding kinematics and EMG of rats and laminar specific single cell encoding properties in the motor cortex (5R03DE028395-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10006877. Licensed CC0.

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