@article{THESIS,
      recid = {3477},
      author = {Laurence-Chasen, Jeffrey},
      title = {Neuromechanics of the Primate Tongue During Feeding},
      publisher = {University of Chicago},
      school = {Ph.D.},
      address = {2021-08},
      number = {THESIS},
      pages = {117},
      abstract = {The tongue plays a key motor role in eating, drinking, and  speaking. Through dynamic movements and deformations, the  tongue manipulates food within the mouth, transports it  during swallowing, and forms the many vowels and consonants  upon which spoken language is built. But relatively little  is known about the neuromechanics of tongue movement, since  the tongue is hidden inside the mouth and difficult to  visualize in 3D. In this dissertation, I use X-ray  Reconstruction of Moving Morphology (XROMM) to precisely  quantify 3D tongue kinematics during feeding in Rhesus  macaque monkeys (Macaca mulatta), a well-developed model  for mastication and motor control. In Chapter 1 I provide  an introduction to the neuromechanics of primate feeding,  with particular emphasis on the role of the tongue, the  sensory innervation of the oral cavity, and the role of the  orofacial sensorimotor cortex. In Chapter 2 I describe a  novel, high-throughput pipeline for processing XROMM data.  My workflow integrates DeepLabCut, a recent machine  learning software for animal pose estimation, and XMALab,  the go-to program for XROMM data processing. In Chapter 3 I  employ a temporary oral nerve block to examine the role of  oral tactile feedback on 3D tongue movement and tongue-jaw  coordination during feeding. I find that loss of oral  tactile feedback impairs feeding performance via  alterations to the pattern of tongue-jaw coordination. In  Chapter 4 I endeavor to decode 3D tongue kinematics from  the activity of neural populations in the sensorimotor  cortex. I find that a Long Short-Term Memory network can  accurately predict various dimensions of tongue posture and  movement from the neural responses of both the primary  motor and somatosensory cortex. In Chapter 5, I offer a  summary of my work, comment on the implications of the  results, outline plans for additional development of the  XROMM-DeepLabCut pipeline, and propose various potential  directions for future research in primate tongue  neuromechanics. Overall, this dissertation provides novel  insight into the neuromechanics of tongue function during  feeding, and in doing so illuminates potential avenues for  advancement of the treatment of the numerous sensorimotor  disorders that impact eating, drinking, and speaking.},
      url = {http://knowledge.uchicago.edu/record/3477},
      doi = {https://doi.org/10.6082/uchicago.3477},
}