SCH: Flexible Electronics For Assessment fo Planning By Children Born Prematurely

SCH：用于评估早产儿计划的灵活电子设备

• 批准号: 9274413
• 负责人: EUGENE C GOLDFIELD
• 金额: $ 54.89万
• 依托单位: HARVARD UNIVERSITY
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2016
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2016-08-26 至 2020-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9274413
• 关键词: Age; Age-Months; Architecture; Assessment tool; Behavior Therapy; Caring; Cerebrum; Child; Cognitive; Development; Developmental Delay Disorders; Devices; Diagnostic; Early identification; Effectiveness; Elastomers; Finger joint structure; Fingers; Foundations; Growth; Hand; Hand functions; Instruction; Joints; Laboratories; Lifting; Liquid substance; Measurement; Measures; Medical; Morbidity - disease rate; Motion; Motor; Nature; Neuronal Plasticity; Outcome; Play; Premature Birth; Premature Infant; Research; Research Design; Safety; Stretching; Surface; Survival Rate; Survivors; Technology; Testing; Therapeutic Intervention; Toddler; Torque; Very Low Birth Weight Infant; Wireless Technology; Work; Wrist; Wrist joint; arm; base; design; flexibility; flexible electronics; improved; innovation; innovative technologies; novel diagnostics; sensor; social; targeted treatment; technological innovation; time orientation; tool

Advances in medical care have improved rates of survival of very low birth weight (VLBW) premature infants (<1.5kg). However, increased survival rates have been accompanied by a significant increase in the number of survivors with reduced cerebral growth and long-term neurodevelopmental motor, cognitive, and social morbidities. There is a critical need for a means of precise identification of the functional nature of these morbidities, to guide the earliest possible behavioral interventions that leverage neural plasticity. A candidate morbidity is force modulation and planning in the use of the hands. This project uses innovative flexible electronic sensor technology embedded in soft materials worn on the hands along with motion capture to examine how children plan and modulate forces during block construction, tool use, and social play. Longitudinal measurement of group differences in force modulation and planning between toddlers born prematurely and typically developing children will make it possible to determine the safety and effectiveness of this innovative sensor technology for early assessment of morbidities due to premature birth. The research leverages work at Harvard on the use of liquid circuits fabricated in soft materials (elastomers) that bend and stretch as they conform to the hands. The outcome will be a new type of device comfortably worn on the hands of toddlers, called "flexi-mitts". Design and fabrication of flexi-mitts present several technical challenges, including (a) embedding the circuitry in multiple layers of material, (b) circuit architectures precisely scaled and spatially arranged to provide measurements of joint angles of the fingers as well as bending torques, (c) simultaneous measurement of finger and wrist joint angles, (d) incorporation of wireless, battery-powered technologies, and (e) circuit architectures that are simplified to fit the form factor of the tiny hands of toddlers. This new flexi-mitt technology has the potential to provide a new diagnostic tool for precise, non-invasive measurement of the effects of premature birth on force modulation and planning. RELEVANCE (See instructions): There is a critical need for diagnostic tools that identify more precisely the nature of developmental delays in prematurely born children. Our project develops flexible electronic sensors embedded in soft materials, called "flexi-mitts", worn on the hands of toddlers to measure planning during play at ages 18, 24, and 30 months. The results will provide the foundation for a new assessment tool.

医疗保健的进步提高了极低出生体重（VLBW）早产儿的存活率 （<1.5公斤）。然而，存活率的提高伴随着数量的显着增加。 大脑发育迟缓以及长期神经发育、运动、认知和社交能力下降的幸存者 发病率。迫切需要一种精确识别这些功能性质的方法 发病率，以指导尽早利用神经可塑性的行为干预措施。一个 候选人的发病率是手部使用中的力量调节和计划。该项目采用创新 柔性电子传感器技术嵌入柔软材料中，随着运动佩戴在手上 捕捉以检查儿童在积木搭建、工具使用和社交过程中如何计划和调节力量 玩。幼儿之间力调节和计划的群体差异的纵向测量 早产儿和正常发育的儿童将有可能确定安全性和 这种创新传感器技术对于早期评估早产儿发病率的有效性 出生。该研究利用了哈佛大学关于使用软材料制造的液体电路的研究成果 （弹性体）可以弯曲和拉伸，以贴合手部。结果将是一种新型设备 舒适地戴在幼儿的手上，称为“弹性手套”。目前柔性手套的设计和制造 若干技术挑战，包括 (a) 将电路嵌入多层材料中，(b) 电路 精确缩放和空间排列的架构可提供手指关节角度的测量 以及弯曲扭矩，(c) 同时测量手指和手腕关节角度，(d) 结合 无线、电池供电技术和 (e) 简化以适应形式的电路架构 幼儿小手的因素。这种新的灵活手套技术有可能提供一种新的 用于精确、非侵入性测量早产对力调节影响的诊断工具 和规划。 相关性（参见说明）： 迫切需要诊断工具来更准确地识别发育迟缓的本​​质 早产儿。我们的项目开发嵌入软材料的柔性电子传感器， 被称为“灵活手套”，戴在幼儿手上，用于测量 18、24 和 30 岁时玩耍时的计划 几个月。结果将为新的评估工具奠定基础。