We would like to acknowledge the following NIH funding sources: DC016030 and DC019902. We would also like to thank the members of the Speech &#38; Neurodevelopment Lab and the families who participated in our numerous studies.

Northeastern University&#39;s institutional review board has approved studies using the NNS device with human subjects (15-06-29; 16-04-06; 17-08-19). Informed consent was obtained from the children&#39;s caregivers. All research personnel have completed human subject training prior to collecting any data with the NNS device. The SNL team has generated several training resources and protocols for new research personnel to complete prior to data collection using the NNS device. These training sessions include reviewing th...

A Custom-Made Pressure Transducer System to Record Non-Nutritive Suck Bursts

The NNS device has several limitations that are important to acknowledge. Although NNS provides critical insight into feeding9, there is a considerable amount of extrapolation from NNS to feeding performance. Solutions to this limitation have included research teams pairing NNS results with actual feeding observations and comprehensive feeding-related questionnaires for caregivers to more fully capture how NNS relates to feeding18. In addition, an infant can have a well-pat...

Non-nutritive suck (NNS) is one of the first occurring behaviors that an infant can perform with their mouth soon after birth and therefore has the potential to provide meaningful insights into brain development1. NNS refers to sucking movements without nutritional intake (e.g., sucking on a pacifier) and is characterized by a series of rhythmic expressions and suction movements of the jaw and tongue with pause breaks for breathing. Common parameters of NNS have been noted to include an average NNS burst (series of suck cycles) of 6-12 suck cycles with an intra-burst frequency of two sucks per second2; however, NNS features vary among clinical populations3,4 and dynamically change during the first year of life5. These changes are attributed to the growth of the oral cavity and associated anatomy, maturation of feeding skills and neurodevelopment, and experiences. The neural bases of NNS mainly include the suck central pattern generator in the central gray of the brainstem, comprising an intricate network of interneurons and the facial and trigeminal motor neuron nuclei6. A coordinated NNS also relies on intact neural pathways among cortical and brainstem regions to modulate its performance to sensory stimuli7,8, which makes NNS a viable indicator of early neural function and development.
NNS measures are linked to feeding success in premature infants9,10, and both sucking and feeding outcomes have been linked to subsequent motor, communication, and cognitive development11,12,13. In a retrospective study that characterized 23 preschool-aged children with language and motor impairments, 87% had a history of early feeding issues, which included difficulties in sucking11. Nutritive sucking performance immediately following birth and caregiver reports of feeding difficulties were significantly associated with multiple domains of neurodevelopment in children 18 months of age12,14. Interestingly, the sensitivity and specificity of feeding performance were higher than ultrasound assessment of the brain on neurodevelopmental outcome measures12. In another study, sucking/oral motor performance scores assessed via the neonatal oral-motor assessment scale15 in early infancy were associated with motor skills, language, and measures of intelligence at 2 and 5 years of age in a cohort of children born prematurely13,16.
Given that sucking and feeding can be sensitive indicators of neurodevelopmental outcomes throughout childhood, there is a critical need for accessible, accurate, and quantitative assessment of NNS to help identify children at risk for delayed and disordered development to provide early intervention. This need led to the design and research utilization of the Speech &#38; Neurodevelopment Lab&#39;s (SNL) NNS device. This portable device includes a pacifier attached to the end of an easy-to-hold handle, connected to a customized pressure transducer designed in-house, and connected to a data acquisition center (DAC). The DAC connects to a laptop, and the data is recorded via data acquisition and analysis software. The pressure transducer measures pressure changes inside the pacifier and converts it into a voltage signal. The DAC contains converters that change the analog voltage signal to digital values in cmH2O that are visualized and recorded via the data acquisition and analysis software. NNS outcome measures that can be analyzed from the suck signal waveform include NNS duration (how long a suck burst lasts measured in s), amplitude (measured as peak height subtracted by peak-trough in cmH2O), cycles/burst (number of suck cycles within a burst), frequency (intra-burst frequency measured in Hz), cycles (number of suck cycles that occur in a min), and bursts (number of suck bursts that occur in a min).

<table border="1" fo:keep-together.within-page="1" fo:keep-with-next.within-page="always">
	<tbody>
		<tr>
			<td>Case</td>
			<td>Pelican</td>
			<td>1560</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Data Acquisition and Analysis Software/LabChart</td>
			<td>ADInstruments</td>
			<td>8.1.25</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Data Acquisition Center (PowerLab 2/26)</td>
			<td>ADInstruments</td>
			<td>ML826</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Laptop</td>
			<td>Dell</td>
			<td>Latitude 5480</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Pressure Calibrator</td>
			<td>Meriam Process Technologies</td>
			<td>M101</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Soothie Pacifier</td>
			<td>Phillips Avent</td>
			<td>SCF190/01</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Syringe</td>
			<td>CareTouch</td>
			<td>CTSLL1</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
	</tbody>
</table>

non-nutritive suck parameters measurements using a custom pressure transducer system

The non-nutritive suck (NNS) device is a transportable, user-friendly pressure transducer system that quantifies infants' NNS behavior on a pacifier. Recording and analysis of the NNS signal using our system can provide measures of an infant's NNS burst duration (s), amplitude (cmH2O), and frequency (Hz). Accurate, reliable, and quantitative assessment of NNS has immense value in serving as a biomarker for future feeding, speech-language, cognitive, and motor development. The NNS device has been used in numerous research lines, some of which have included measuring NNS features to investigate the effects of feeding-related interventions, characterizing NNS development across populations, and correlating sucking behaviors with subsequent neurodevelopment. The device has also been used in environmental health research to examine how exposures in utero can influence infant NNS development. Thus, the overarching goal in research and clinical utilization of the NNS device is to correlate NNS parameters with neurodevelopmental outcomes to identify children at risk for developmental delays and provide rapid early intervention.

Author Spotlight: Implications of Non-Nutritive Sucking on Speech Emergence and Infant Development

Non-Nutritive Suck Parameters Measurements Using a Custom Pressure Transducer System

My research examines the cross section of sucking, feeding and speech emergence across environmental, maternal, physiological and genetic factors and across patient populations. I seek to determine how factors influence sucking, feeding and speech emergence with the goal of providing targeted assessments earlier for infants who experience sucking and feeding delays. Our research has established the first standardization of NNS at specific time points in the first year of life and how characteristics of NNS change across the sample.We have shown that aspects of NNS relate to neurodevelopmental outcomes and vary across clinical populations of infants. In both research and clinical settings, very few assessment tools exist for quantifying infant NNS. Our protocol bridges this gap by providing a quantitative, physiologically-based system to assess infant NNS that is transportable and can be utilized in a variety of clinic and research-based settings.Data in our lab shows that infant non-nutritive suck is a sensitive indicator of exposures in utero and is linked with subsequent neurodevelopmental outcomes. Ultimately, my goal is to attain enough data to change public policy and allow for a non-nutritive suck screen for all infants soon after birth, much like a newborn hearing screen. Results have consistently demonstrated that quantitative NNS measurement is a sensitive biomarker of neurodevelopment.This has led to more specific research questions regarding how NNS relates with subsequent communication and neuromotor outcomes and attempts to uncover the underlying mechanisms that link these domains. Future research with the NNS device will focus on describing NNS performance in clinical populations. If we can distinguish typical versus atypical NNS behavior with the device, this would significantly help its clinical utility by identifying children at potential risk for future issues with feeding or oral motor development.

The NNS device has been used in numerous published studies that incorporate NNS outcome measures17,18,19. In the example data shown in Figure 7, bursts have been manually identified with the following criteria: more than one suck cycle per burst, cycles having at least an amplitude of 1 cmH2O, and suck waveforms within 1000 ms of each other. Once bursts are identified, the custom Macro ou...

Read this Scientific Article Protocol about Author Spotlight: Implications of Non-Nutritive Sucking on Speech Emergence and Infant Development at JoVE.com

The non-nutritive suck (NNS) device can easily collect and quantify NNS features using a pacifier connected to a pressure transducer and recorded through a data acquisition system and laptop. Quantification of NNS parameters can provide valuable insight into a child's current and future neurodevelopment.

The non-nutritive suck (NNS) device is a transportable, user-friendly pressure transducer system that quantifies infants' NNS behavior on a pacifier. ...

non-nutritive-suck-parameters-measurements-using-custom-pressure

Research

JoVE Journal

Bioengineering

365 ビュー.  Northeastern University. 私の研究は、環境的、母性的、生理学的、遺伝的要因、および患者集団全体で、吸啜、摂食、発話の断面を調べています。私は、吸啜と授乳の遅れを経験した乳児に的を絞った評価を早期に提供することを目標に、要因が吸啜、摂食、発話にどのように影響するかを判断しようとしています。私たちの研究は、生後1年の特定の時点でのNNSの最初の標準化と、NNSの特性が?...

ビデオ: 著者スポットライト:非栄養吸引が発話創発と乳児の発達に及ぼす影響

The non-nutritive suck (NNS) device can easily collect and quantify NNS features using a pacifier connected to a pressure transducer and recorded through a data acquisition system and laptop. Quantification of NNS parameters can provide valuable insight into a child's current and future...

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recording and analyzing non-nutritive suck bursts in infants

Recording and Analyzing Non-Nutritive Suck Bursts in Infants

left atrial ligation in the avian embryo as a model for altered hemodynamic loading during early vascular development

Author Spotlight: Effect of Left Atrial Ligation on Avian Embryonic Hearts and HLHS Implications 

Here, we present a detailed visual protocol for executing the left atrial ligation (LAL) model in the avian embryo. The LAL model alters the intracardiac flow, which changes wall shear stress loading, mimicking hypoplastic left heart syndrome. An approach to overcome the challenges of this difficult microsurgery model is presented.

Avian Embryonic Left Atrial Ligation Model for HLHS and Cardiovascular Research

enhancing the development and growth of infant cerebral palsy rats using selective spinal manipulations

Author Spotlight: Exploring the Efficacy of Selective Spinal Manipulation in Pediatric Cerebral Palsy

This study illustrates the effect of selective spinal manipulation on the growth and development of infant rats with cerebral palsy, emphasizing the specific procedure and standardized protocol. Body weight measurement, Rotarod test, Foot-fault score, other behavioral tests, and growth hormone detection were performed to evaluate the protocol.

Developmental Enhancement in Cerebral Palsy Rats via Spinal Manipulations

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Enhancing the Development and Growth of Infant Cerebral Palsy Rats Using Selective Spinal Manipulations

foreign accent and forensic speaker identification in voice lineups: the influence of acoustic features based on prosody

Author Spotlight: Impact of Foreign Accent on Speaker Identification Using Prosodic Features and Automated Forensic Analysis

This research aimed to make a comparison between L1-L2-English and L1-L2 Portuguese to check how much the effect of a foreign accent accounts for both metrics and prosodic-acoustic parameters, as well as for the choice of the target voice in a voice...

Prosodic-Acoustic Features and L2 Speech Production for Forensic Applications

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transfer and rearing of butterfly eggs on agar-based diet until adult emergence

Transfer and Rearing of Butterfly Eggs on Agar-Based Diet Until Adult Emergence  

infant auditory processing and event-related brain oscillations

Infant Auditory Processing and Event-related Brain Oscillations

High-density electroencephalography (dEEG) is being used increasingly to study brain development and plasticity in the early years of life. Here we present an application of sophisticated analysis techniques that builds on traditional EEG recording to understand the oscillatory dynamics of rapid auditory processing in the infant brain.

a within-subjects experimental protocol to assess the effects of social input on infant eeg

A Within-subjects Experimental Protocol to Assess the Effects of Social Input on Infant EEG

This novel protocol is designed to assess the neural bases of social interaction in infants. The paradigm is designed to tease apart how various social inputs such as language, joint attention, and face-to-face interaction relate to infant neural activation. Infant EEG power is recorded during both social and nonsocial...

developing a feeding assay system for evaluating the insecticidal effect of phytochemicals on helicoverpa armigera

Author Spotlight: Development and Challenges of Feeding Assays for Insect Pest Management 

This protocol describes the obligate feeding assay to evaluate the potentially toxic effect of a phytochemical on the lepidopteran insect larvae. This is a highly scalable insect bioassay, easy to optimize the sublethal and lethal dose, deterrent activity, and physiological effect. This could be used for screening eco-friendly...

Assessment of Phytochemical Effects on &lt;em&gt;Helicoverpa armigera&lt;/em&gt; Through Feeding Assay

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polarization and characterization of m1 and m2 human monocyte-derived macrophages on implant surfaces 

Author Spotlight: Macrophage Polarization on Implant Surfaces: Characterization and Implications for Immunomodulatory Biomaterials

Here, we present a detailed protocol for assessing the immunomodulatory potential of implant surfaces in vitro, aiming to improve the reliability and reproducibility of current protocols and promoting further research. Secretory cytokine profiles, mRNA expression, and cell surface markers were monitored using blood monocyte-derived macrophages to investigate macrophage polarization cultivated on titanium.

Assessing Immunomodulatory Effects of Implant Surfaces on Macrophages

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rearing the cabbage white butterfly (pieris rapae) in controlled conditions: a case study with heavy metal tolerance

Author Spotlight: Investigating the Tolerance of Cabbage Butterflies to Urban Pollutants 

This paper presents a detailed protocol for rearing the cabbage white butterfly in controlled lab conditions with an artificial diet, which allows precise manipulations of early-life nutrition and toxin exposure. The representative results show how heavy metal toxicity can be assayed with this...

Artificial Rearing and Heavy Metal Tolerance in Cabbage White Butterflies

stabilizing a femur osteotomy with a plate fixation in ambystoma mexicanum

Author Spotlight: Exploring Regeneration in Axolotls Through Insights in Cellular and Molecular Mechanisms, Bone Healing, and Implications for Human Therapies

A protocol for femoral osteotomy surgery with the use of internal plate fixation in mature axolotls is presented. The procedure can be used to perform comparative studies on limb regeneration and fracture healing in aquatic...

Using Plate Fixation to Study Bone Healing and Limb Regeneration in Axolotls

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a precise and autonomous system for the detection of insect emergence patterns

A Precise and Autonomous System for the Detection of Insect Emergence Patterns

Measurement of insect emergence patterns requires precision. Existing systems are only semi-automated and sample size is limited. We addressed these issues by designing a system using microcontrollers to precisely measure the time of emergence of large numbers of emerging...

exploring infant sensitivity to visual language using eye tracking and the preferential looking paradigm

Exploring Infant Sensitivity to Visual Language using Eye Tracking and the Preferential Looking Paradigm

Eye tracking studies using a preferential looking paradigm can be used to study infants&#39;&#160;emerging understanding of, and attention to, their external visual...

establishment of an experimental mouse model of endometrioma to study its related infertility

Author Spotlight: Developing a Mouse Model for OMA-Associated Infertility and Its Implications for Treatment and Diagnosis

This study introduces a novel mouse model specifically designed to simulate endometrioma, a clinically significant subtype of endometriosis. By utilizing C57BL/6J mice, the model aims to elucidate the pathophysiological mechanisms underlying endometrioma-related infertility, offering a refined tool to bridge the current knowledge gap in reproductive...

Development of a Novel Endometrioma-Simulating Mouse Model

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non-intubated video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery

Author Spotlight: A Non-Intubated Video-Assisted Thoracoscopic Surgery with Multimodal Analgesia and Sevoflurane Inhalation Anesthesia 

Here, we present a non-intubated protocol for performing video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery with preserved autonomic...

A Non-Intubation Protocol for Video-Assisted Thoracoscopic Surgery with Preserved Autonomic Breathing

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hand-rearing method for infant marmosets

Author Spotlight: Marmoset Research - Scope and Challenges 

Here, we describe a hand-rearing method for raising infant marmosets in an animal incubator. This method greatly increases the survival rate of marmoset infants, which provides the opportunity to study the development of marmoset infants with similar genetic backgrounds raised in different postnatal...

Hand-Rearing Method for Infant Marmosets

a rapid method to confine and safely handle bees in the field

Author Spotlight: Novel Non-Lethal Method for Field Documentation and Sampling of At-Risk Bee Taxa

We demonstrate a tested method for safely handling field-collected bees. This method allows swift manipulation, identification, genetic sampling, and confirmation of plant-insect interactions via pollen collected while sampling. Easily adaptable, this approach offers a cost-effective, non-lethal means to study rare insect...