The brain of typically developing fetuses includes an organized set of neurons in the brainstem and cortex that are involved in the production of centrally patterned rhythmic motor behaviors. This type of neural circuit is known as a central pattern generator (CPG). One such rhythmic behavior controlled by a CPG is the suck. Under normal circumstances, the human infant is pecocial for suck, meaning it is a motor behavior that is well established in utero and functional at birth. This is logical since a good suck CPG is needed in order for the baby to thrive and develop following birth. Unfortunately, many babies born prematurely exhibit grossly disorganized suck and this leads to medical complications and failure to thrive and develop. There seem to be other ramifications as well concerning the baby's overall sensorimotor development, perceptual capacity, and even delays in higher cognitive function including speech, language, and other processing skills. Another feature of CPG's is that many are modulated by sensory stimulation, either as a result of the motor behavior itself, or by an external stimulus which can be used to "trigger" and regulate the rate and phase of the suck pattern. The NTrainer System™ utilizes these neurophysiologic principles of sensormotor entrainment of CPG's to drive the human suck pattern. Premies and infants with oromotor dysfunction are given entrainment "experiences" a few times each day. The pleasurable and preferred patterns of somatosensory experience generated by the NTrainer System™ produces volleys of synchronous afferent activity along the sensory pathways which are part of the suck CPG. This somatosensory experience has been shown to modulate the baby's suck pattern, essentially phase-locking their motor output to match the NTrainer System™'s synthetic suck signal. In essence, the baby's suck becomes more highly organized and functional. From the neurophysiologic literature on brain plasticity, it has been shown that neurons which fire together (synchronously as is the case during entrainment) will wire together. Thus, the NTrainer System™ represents a new neurotherapeutic tool for increasing the probability of functional oromotor behavioral, improvement in the mapping of perception-action subsystems in the developing brain, and likely positive impact on later occurring cognitive development.

File Number: 2004 FY 23 

Web site: http://www.ku.edu/~splh/

Other Information: *State of Development* Under development for implementation at two regional neonatal intensive care units in Kansas as part of an ongoing NIH research grant focused on sensorimotor development of the orofacial system in human neonates at risk for intraventricular stroke, respiratory distress syndrome, and typically developing babies. KC BioMediX has licensed the technology and is planning additional clinical studies in 2008.