Scaling analysis of baseline dual-axis cervical accelerometry signals

Dual-axis cervical accelerometry is an emerging approach for the assessment of swallowing difficulties. However, the baseline signals, i.e., vibration signals with only quiet breathing or apnea but without swallowing, are not well understood. In particular, to comprehend the contaminant effects of head motion on cervical accelerometry, we need to study the scaling behavior of these baseline signals. Dual-axis accelerometry data were collected from 50 healthy adult participants under conditions of quiet breathing, apnea and selected head motions, all in the absence of swallowing. The denoised cervical vibrations were subjected to detrended fluctuation analysis with empirically determined first-order detrending. Strong persistence was identified in cervical vibration signals in both anterior–posterior (A–P) and superior–inferior (S–I) directions, under all the above experimental conditions. Vibrations in the A–P axes exhibited stronger correlations than those in the S–I axes, possibly as a result of axis-specific effects of vasomotion. In both axes, stronger correlations were found in the presence of head motion than without, suggesting that head movement significantly impacts baseline cervical accelerometry. No gender or age effects were found on statistical persistence of either vibration axes. Future developments of cervical accelerometry-based medical devices should actively mitigate the effects of head movement.