WO2023281664A1

WO2023281664A1 - Biological signal measurement electrodes and measurement device

Info

Publication number: WO2023281664A1
Application number: PCT/JP2021/025643
Authority: WO
Inventors: あゆ美畑
Original assignee: 株式会社オクチィ
Priority date: 2021-07-07
Filing date: 2021-07-07
Publication date: 2023-01-12

Abstract

The following problems arise when detecting electrical signals, generated in a living body, by bringing an electrode into contact with a living body surface. (1) Electrical contact between an electrode having a planar contact surface and skin is not maintained. (2) In the case of a substrate-shaped electrode in which a large number of electrodes are arranged on a substrate, it is difficult to simultaneously measure muscles that are arranged in layers and extend in multiple directions. (3) Individual electrodes in a substrate-shaped electrode are fixed and thus limited in terms of use. (4) It is difficult to use a substrate-shaped electrode when the part of the living body surface on which the electrode is disposed has a large curvature. The following means were used to solve these problems. (1) The contact surface between the electrode and the living body was made convex. (2) An arrangement of the electrodes was devised. (3) Individual electrodes were made to be easily attachable and detachable. (4) The substrate-shaped electrode was pressed by a cushion.

Description

Biosignal measurement electrode and measurement device

The present invention relates to biosignal measurement electrodes and measuring devices placed on the surface of the skin to measure biosignals including electromyography.

Muscles have many roles in living organisms. One of them is to perform various actions of the living body. For example, weakening of the muscles involved in tongue movement can cause a decline in eating and swallowing functions and sleep apnea syndrome. Therefore, evaluation of muscle exercise capacity is necessary. An electromyogram obtained by measuring the myoelectric potential of a muscle plays an important role in evaluating the exercise capacity of the muscle.

For example, the movement of the tongue involves the suprahyoid muscles. The suprahyoid muscle group has many muscles intricately intertwined, and it is not easy to measure electromyograms of these muscles at the same time.

As an example of biosignal measurement, electromyography has been conventionally performed by attaching two electrodes to the body surface along the muscle to be measured, and by arranging a large number of electrodes in a grid pattern on a substrate. It has been performed by using a substrate-like electrode.

Patent Document 1 discloses a method of using substrate-like electrodes in which a large number of electrodes are arranged on a substrate in order to measure the myoelectric potential of arm muscles. This substrate-like electrode is composed of a large number of electrodes arranged in a matrix. That is, in this array, the electrodes are arranged regularly in orthogonal row and column directions, and the electrodes adjacent to each other at the same distance from each electrode constituting the array are positioned in four directions of up and down and left and right. It is something to do. That is, the electrodes are arranged at regular intervals in these four directions. Viewed as a mathematical direction, the electrodes are arranged at regular intervals in two directions, ie, the vertical direction and the horizontal direction. In the measurement, this arrangement was arranged along the muscle fiber of the muscle to be measured.

Patent Document 2 discloses a substrate-like electrode in which a large number of electrodes are arranged on a substrate as an electrode for measuring myoelectric potential. The substrate-like electrodes disclosed herein are electrodes arranged in one or two rows. With respect to the substrate-shaped electrodes in which the electrodes are arranged in two rows, one or two electrodes are adjacent to each other at the same distance from any electrode constituting the arrangement. That is, any electrode in the array that is adjacent to it at the same distance from it is located in one or two directions in terms of mathematical directions. That is, the electrodes were arranged at regular intervals in these directions. Further, the electrode surface of the arranged electrodes is disclosed as a plane.

JP-A-59-200632 JP 2019-50906 A

　Conventionally, electromyography was measured as an example of measuring biological signals. For electromyogram measurement, an electrode having a planar surface that contacts the skin surface of a subject to be measured has been used. However, even if one electrode is attached to a flat electrode, if the surface of the skin to which the electrode is attached is curved, the electrode tends to come off as the measurement time increases, and electrical contact between the skin and the electrode is maintained. I had an unbearable problem.

In addition, with planar electrodes, the target muscle repeats contraction and relaxation during measurement, which deforms the skin surface of the person being measured and changes the contact state between the electrode and the skin, resulting in good electrical signal transmission. Sometimes I couldn't get it.
Moreover, in the case of substrate-shaped electrodes in which a large number of electrodes are arranged on a substrate, the above-mentioned problems occur more conspicuously because each of the large number of electrodes is in a different contact state with the skin surface. In particular, when the substrate-like electrode is used to measure muscles belonging to the suprahyoid muscle group, the shape of the part where the substrate-like electrode is placed has a complex shape that is not monotonous, and these problems arise. there were. In addition, when applying to a site such as the suprahyoid muscle group, where the skin surface is greatly deformed during swallowing, the conventional planar electrode has a contact state with the skin surface depending on the electrode in the substrate. It is sometimes difficult to obtain a good electrical signal because it varies depending on the time and timing.

As described in Background Art, substrate-like electrodes, in which a large number of electrodes are arranged on a substrate, have conventionally been used for myoelectric potential measurement. An example of a conventional substrate-like electrode is shown in FIG. In the conventional substrate-shaped electrode 161, as described in the background art, for example, the arrangement of the electrodes is such that the individual electrodes 162 are regularly arranged in a grid pattern in orthogonal row and column directions. The electrodes adjacent to each electrode at the same shortest distance from any of the electrodes constituting the are located in four directions of up, down, left and right. That is, the directions in which the electrodes are arranged at regular intervals at the shortest distance are the two directions corresponding to these four directions. Examples of these two directions are shown in FIG. 19 by dashed lines 163 and 164 .

The direction in which the electrodes are equally spaced at the shortest distance is related to the number of muscle types that can be measured simultaneously. Muscles sometimes exist in layers in the depth direction from the surface of the body, and some of them extend in different directions on a plane. When simultaneously measuring electromyograms of a plurality of muscles in such a complicated site, it is necessary to arrange a plurality of electrodes used for measurement along the muscle fibers of the muscles to be measured. Advantageously, the electrodes are arranged at short intervals. Therefore, the number of streaks that can be measured when a conventional substrate-like electrode is used as the electrode is two, which is the number of arrays in which the electrodes are arranged at regular intervals.
In the above, the problems to be solved by the present invention have been described based on examples related to electromyograms, but these problems are not limited to the measurement of electromyograms, but are also applicable to the measurement of various electrical signals generated in living organisms. It applies. Moreover, the living body applies not only to the human body but also to animals.

A biological signal measuring electrode according to Embodiment 1 is an electrode that detects an electrical signal generated in a living body by contacting the surface of the living body, and the surface of the electrode that contacts the living body is configured to have a convex shape. .

The biosignal measurement electrode according to Embodiment 2 is configured such that the convex shape according to Embodiment 1 is a dome shape including a spherical surface.

A biological signal measurement electrode according to Embodiment 3 includes a plurality of electrodes for detecting electrical signals generated in a living body by contacting a surface of the living body; The electrode installation site has an electrode installation site, the plurality of electrode installation sites are arranged regularly, and the distances between any of the electrode installation sites and the electrode installation sites immediately adjacent to the electrode installation site are the same. Thus, the plurality of electrodes are configured to be installed at the positions of the plurality of electrode installation sites.

The biosignal measuring electrode according to Embodiment 4 is configured such that the electrode installation portion according to Embodiment 3 is a through hole formed in the substrate.

A biosignal measurement electrode according to embodiment 5 is the biosignal measurement electrode according to

embodiment

3 or 4, wherein the substrate is made of a flexible, electrically insulating material.

A biosignal measurement electrode according to Embodiment 6 is the biosignal measurement electrode according to any one of Embodiments 3 to 5, wherein the flexible electrically insulating material is silicone rubber, vinyl, or plastic. It was configured to be selected from the group consisting of

A biological signal measurement electrode according to Embodiment 7 is an electrode that detects an electrical signal generated in a living body by contacting the surface of the living body, and an electrode having a fastening structure on the back surface of the surface of the electrode that contacts the living body. , a fastening member corresponding to the fastening structure, and a substrate on which the electrode is installed, wherein the electrode is fastened to the fastening structure by the fastening member so as to sandwich the substrate.

A biosignal measurement electrode according to Embodiment 8 is the biosignal measurement electrode according to Embodiment 7, wherein the fastening structure is a male screw, and the fastening member is a nut corresponding to the male screw.

A biosignal measurement electrode according to Embodiment 9 is the biosignal measurement electrode according to Embodiment 3, wherein the surfaces of the plurality of electrodes that come into contact with a living body have a smooth convex shape, and the surfaces of the electrodes contact the living body. A fastening structure is provided on the back surface of the surface in contact with the plurality of electrodes, and the plurality of electrodes are installed so as to be fastened by fastening members corresponding to the fastening structure so as to sandwich the substrate at the positions of the plurality of electrode installation sites. Configured.

A biosignal measurement electrode according to Embodiment 10 is the biosignal measurement electrode according to Embodiment 9, wherein the substrate is made of a flexible insulating material, and the convex shape includes a spherical surface. It is dome-shaped, the fastening structure is a male screw, and the fastening member is a nut corresponding to the male screw.

A biosignal measurement electrode according to Embodiment 11 is the biosignal measurement electrode according to Embodiment 9 or 10, wherein the flexible electrically insulating material is selected from the group consisting of silicone rubber, vinyl, and plastic. It is configured to be

A method for manufacturing a biosignal measurement electrode according to Embodiment 12 includes a plurality of electrodes for contacting and detecting an electrical signal generated in a living body on a surface of the living body, and a substrate on which the plurality of electrodes are installed, wherein the substrate has a plurality of electrode installation sites, the plurality of electrode installation sites are arranged regularly, and the distance between any of the electrode installation sites and the electrode installation sites immediately adjacent to the electrode installation site is The biosignal measuring electrode, wherein each of the plurality of electrodes has a smooth convex shape on the surface that contacts the living body, and has a fastening structure on the back surface of the surface that contacts the living body of the electrode. comprising the steps of arranging the plurality of electrodes at the position of the electrode installation portion, and fixing the plurality of electrodes at the position with a fixing member corresponding to the fixing structure so as to sandwich the substrate. configured as follows.

A method for manufacturing a biosignal-measuring electrode according to Embodiment 13 is the method for manufacturing a biosignal-measuring electrode according to Embodiment 12, wherein the substrate is made of a flexible insulating material, and the convex The shape is a dome shape including a spherical surface, the fastening structure is a male screw, and the fastening member is a nut corresponding to the male screw.

An electrode fixing aid according to Embodiment 14 is a substrate-like biological signal measuring electrode in which a plurality of electrodes for contacting and detecting electrical signals generated in a living body are arranged on a substrate. A fixation aid, wherein the electrode fixation aid is a bag body containing a fluid material, and the bag body covers the substrate-like biosignal measurement electrode placed in contact with the living body. configured to be placed

The electrode fixing aid according to Embodiment 15 is the electrode fixing aid according to Embodiment 14, wherein the fluid material contained in the bag is a mixture of water-absorbing polymer and water, liquid, oil, gas, It is configured to be selected from the group consisting of aggregates of powder and beads.

A biological signal measuring device according to embodiment 16 comprises the electrode fixing aid according to

embodiment

14 or 15, and a plurality of electrodes arranged on a substrate for contacting and detecting electrical signals generated in the living body on the surface of the living body. A substrate-like biosignal measuring electrode comprising: a plurality of electrodes for detecting electrical signals generated in a living body by contacting the surface of the living body; and a substrate on which the plurality of electrodes are placed. wherein the substrate has a plurality of electrode placement sites, the plurality of electrode placement sites are regularly arranged, and any of the electrode placement sites is adjacent to the electrode placement site immediately adjacent to the electrode placement site. , wherein the plurality of electrodes are installed at the positions of the plurality of electrode installation sites, and the surfaces of the plurality of electrodes arranged on the substrate that come into contact with a living body are domes including spherical surfaces. It was configured to be in the shape of a mold.

A biosignal measuring device according to Embodiment 17 is the biosignal measuring device according to Embodiment 16, wherein the substrate is made of a flexible, electrically insulating material.

A biological signal measuring device according to Embodiment 18, comprising: a plurality of electrodes for detecting electrical signals generated in a living body by contacting a surface of the living body; and a substrate on which the plurality of electrodes are installed. and a pressing member for holding the electrode fixing aid according to the fourteenth embodiment together with the substrate-like biosignal measuring electrode according to the fourteenth embodiment.

A biological signal measuring apparatus according to embodiment 19 is the biological signal measuring apparatus described in embodiment 18, wherein the pressing member is a base that supports the measurement target site of the subject.

A biological signal measuring apparatus according to embodiment 20 is the biological signal measuring apparatus described in embodiment 19, wherein the table supporting the measurement target site of the subject is configured to have a height adjustment mechanism.

A biosignal measuring device according to Embodiment 21 is the biosignal measuring device according to any one of Embodiments 18 to 20, wherein an electrode for detecting an electrical signal generated in the living body by contacting the surface of the living body is provided on the substrate. The plurality of substrate-shaped electrodes for measuring biosignals arranged includes a plurality of electrodes for contacting and detecting electrical signals generated in the living body on the surface of the living body, and a substrate on which the plurality of electrodes are placed, wherein the substrate is a plurality of electrodes. The electrode installation sites are arranged regularly, and the distance between each electrode installation site and the electrode installation site immediately adjacent to the electrode installation site is the same. wherein the plurality of electrodes are biosignal measuring electrodes installed at the positions of the plurality of electrode installation sites, and the surfaces of the plurality of electrodes arranged on the substrate that come into contact with a living body are spherical. It was configured to be a dome shape containing.

A biosignal measurement electrode according to Embodiment 22 is the biosignal measurement electrode according to any one of

Embodiments

3, 4, 5, 6, and 9 to 11, wherein the plurality of regularly arranged The arrangement of the electrode installation sites is two in the first row, three in the second row, four in the fourth row, and three in the fifth row. The distance between the electrode installation site and the electrode installation site immediately adjacent to the electrode installation site is the same, and the distance is between 0.5 cm and 2 cm.

A method for manufacturing a biosignal measurement electrode according to Embodiment 23 is the method for manufacturing a biosignal measurement electrode according to

Embodiment

12 or 13, wherein the array of the plurality of electrode installation sites that are regularly arranged includes: Two electrodes are arranged in the first row, three electrodes in the second row, four electrodes in the fourth row, and three electrodes in the fifth row. The distance between the electrode installation sites adjacent to each other immediately adjacent to each other is the same, and the distance is between 0.5 cm and 2 cm.

A biosignal measuring device according to a twenty-fourth aspect is the biosignal measuring device according to the sixteenth aspect, wherein the array of the plurality of electrode installation sites that are regularly arranged includes two on the first row and two on the second row. Three electrodes are arranged in a row, four electrodes are arranged in a fourth row, and three electrodes are arranged in a fifth row. The distances where the distances were equal were configured to be between 0.5 cm and 2 cm.

A biosignal measuring device according to a twenty-fifth aspect is the biosignal measuring device according to the twenty-first aspect, wherein the array of the plurality of electrode installation sites that are regularly arranged includes two on the first row and two on the second row. Three electrodes are arranged in a row, four electrodes are arranged in a fourth row, and three electrodes are arranged in a fifth row. The distances where the distances were equal were configured to be between 0.5 cm and 2 cm.

A biological signal measurement electrode according to Embodiment 26 is the biological signal measurement electrode according to Embodiment 2, wherein the dome shape including the spherical surface is a dome shape including a spherical surface that bites into the skin surface of the subject to be measured. configured to be.

A biosignal measurement electrode according to Embodiment 27 is the biosignal measurement electrode according to any one of Embodiments 3 to 5, wherein the electrode detects an electrical signal generated in the living body by contacting the surface of the living body. The surface that comes into contact with the living body is configured to have a dome shape including a spherical surface that bites into the skin surface.

A biosignal measurement electrode according to Embodiment 28 is the biosignal measurement electrode according to

Embodiment

7, 8, 10, or 11, wherein the electrode detects an electrical signal generated in the living body by contacting the surface of the living body. The surface that comes into contact with the living body is configured to have a dome shape including a spherical surface that bites into the skin surface.

A method for manufacturing a biosignal measurement electrode according to Embodiment 29 is the method for manufacturing a biosignal measurement electrode according to

Embodiment

12 or 13, wherein an electrical signal generated in the living body is detected by contacting the surface of the living body. The surface of the electrode that comes into contact with the living body is configured to have a dome shape including a spherical surface that digs into the skin surface.

A biosignal measuring device according to Embodiment 30 is the biosignal measuring device according to any one of Embodiments 16 and 17, wherein the electrode for detecting an electrical signal generated in the living body is in contact with the surface of the living body. The surface in contact with the skin was configured to have a dome shape including a spherical surface that bites into the skin surface.

A biosignal measuring device according to Embodiment 31 is the biosignal measuring device according to any one of Embodiments 18 to 21, wherein the electrode for detecting an electrical signal generated in the living body is in contact with the surface of the living body. The surface in contact with the skin was configured to have a dome shape including a spherical surface that bites into the skin surface.

One of the effects of the present invention is that the electrodes that contact the surface of the living body to detect electrical signals generated in the living body can be used even if the surface of the living body has unevenness or the surface of the living body fluctuates during measurement. It is possible to obtain an electrode which can be in good contact with and can perform good detection.

One effect of the present invention is that a plurality of electric signal generation sources to be detected are arranged in a substrate-like electrode in which a plurality of individual electrodes are arranged on a substrate for contacting and detecting electric signals generated in the living body. To obtain a substrate-like electrode capable of simultaneously measuring signals generated from a plurality of electrical signal sources even when a plurality of electrical signal sources are distributed in a planar direction in a living body or overlapped in a depth direction in a living body. .

One effect of the present invention is that it is possible to obtain an electrode that can be easily attached to and detached from a substrate for detecting an electrical signal generated in the body by coming into contact with the surface of the body.

One effect of the present invention is that it is possible to obtain an electrode manufacturing method that allows easy attachment and detachment to and from a substrate for one electrode that detects an electrical signal generated in the body by coming into contact with the surface of the body.

One of the effects of the present invention is that in the case of performing measurement using a substrate-like electrode in which a large number of individual electrodes are arranged on a substrate for contacting and detecting electrical signals generated in the living body, To obtain a biological signal measuring device capable of obtaining good contact with a living body surface and performing good detection even when the living body surface has irregularities or fluctuates during detection.
These effects apply not only to the human body but also to animals.

Electrode with spherical electrode surface according to the present invention 1 is a diagram showing an embodiment of a biological signal measurement electrode according to the present invention; FIG. A diagram for explaining the arrangement of electrode installation sites according to the present invention. Examples of substrates according to the present invention Example of biosignal measurement electrode according to the present invention corresponding to measurement of suprahyoid muscle group Example of signal processing circuit for multi-point measurement An arrangement example in which the biosignal measurement electrode according to the present invention is applied to the measurement of the suprahyoid muscle group Examples of electrodes for biosignal measurement according to the present invention FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining a first locking structure for electrodes according to the present invention; FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining a second locking structure for electrodes according to the present invention; Electrode fixing aid according to the present invention Examples of bags according to the present invention Example of the first biological signal measuring device according to the present invention Example of the second biological signal measuring device according to the present invention Configuration example of the biological signal measuring device according to the present invention Example of measured data on the suprahyoid muscle group Measurement sites for arm muscles Example of measurement data related to arm muscles Example of a conventional biosignal detection electrode

Embodiments of a biosignal detection electrode, an electrode manufacturing method, and a biosignal detection device according to the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. It should be noted that each of the embodiments described below is a preferred specific example of the present invention. Therefore, numerical values, shapes, materials, constituent elements, arrangement positions of constituent elements, connection forms, steps, order of steps, and the like shown in the following embodiments are examples and do not limit the present invention.

In addition, each drawing is a schematic diagram and is not necessarily strictly illustrated. Duplicate descriptions in each drawing are omitted or simplified.

In describing the embodiment for carrying out the invention, as an example of measuring a biological signal, the signal processing obtained from the electrode and the handling of the electrode when measuring an electromyogram will be described. As in the following example, the biosignal is preferably myoelectric potential, but is not limited to this.

　In order to measure an electromyogram, the basic method is to attach two detection electrodes to the target muscle and one reference electrode to a tissue that is electrically unaffected by the target muscle. A voltage signal is measured which is the potential of the sensing electrode relative to the reference electrode. Assuming that the voltages of the signals obtained from these two detection electrodes are detection voltage 1 and detection voltage 2, respectively, the difference between these signals (detection voltage 1-detection voltage 2) is obtained and output by the amplifier. This method is called differential amplification. The advantage of differential amplification is that commercial AC noise contained in the detected signal can be canceled as a common mode signal.

Pay attention to the following points when applying electrodes.
(1) Make sure that the electrode and skin are in stable contact (2) Attach the detection electrode in the direction of the muscle fiber (3) Avoid the neuromuscular junction (4) Consider the depth of the target muscle and the electrode spacing to decide

This is because the above (1) is a factor of noise generation if the contact is unstable.
The reason for (2) above is that even if the action potentials of different muscle fibers are measured and differentially amplified, the muscle activity cannot be evaluated appropriately.
Regarding (3) above, when the detection electrodes are attached across the neuromuscular junction, the propagating action potential causes the two detection electrodes to generate the same voltage, which is differentially amplified to measure the electromyogram. This is because it may not be possible.
This is because, as a result of theoretical analysis, the induction range in the depth direction of the electromyogram is equal to the electrode spacing for the above (4). If the electrode spacing is too large, there is a risk of inducing signals from underlying muscles of interest.

[First embodiment]
A first embodiment of the present invention will be described. A first embodiment is an electrode for detecting an electrical signal generated in a living body by contacting the biological signal measuring electrode with the surface of the living body, and the surface of the electrode that contacts the living body is configured to be convex. ing.
By making the surface of the electrode that contacts the living body convex, good contact between the electrode and the living body surface can be achieved even if the living body surface with which the electrode contacts is uneven and the electrode does not come into vertical contact with the living body surface. can be secured. Moreover, even if the surface of the living body is deformed due to contraction and relaxation of the muscle to be measured during myoelectric potential measurement, good contact between the electrodes and the surface of the living body can be maintained. Therefore, it is possible to eliminate the contact failure that occurs in conventional planar electrodes. The electrode according to the present embodiment has a shape in which the surface of the electrode bites into the surface of the living body.

In the first embodiment, the convex shape, which is the surface of the electrode, which is a biosignal measurement electrode, and which is in contact with the living body, may be a dome shape including a spherical surface. A domed shape is a rounded roof shape. By forming the dome shape including the spherical surface in this way, it is possible to cope well with the irregular shape of the surface of the living body and the deformation of the surface of the living body due to the movement of muscles. FIG. 1 shows an example in which a spherical surface 12 is adopted as the dome shape. In the embodiment shown in FIG. 1, the diameter of the hemispherical portion of the electrode 11 is 6 mm (radius 3 mm). By forming the electrode surface of the electrode 11 that contacts the living body surface 14 to detect the living body surface 14 in a spherical shape, the electrode surface digs into the living body surface, and the angle at which the electrode touches the living body surface changes from vertical to vertical. Good contact with the living body surface can be maintained even when tilted. This is because the contact state between the surface of the living body and the contact surfaces of the electrodes is maintained unchanged even when the electrodes are tilted due to deformation of the surface of the living body due to movement of the living body during measurement. 1 is a substrate 13 for supporting electrodes, which is used as necessary.

In addition, even if this dome-shaped shape is a quadratic surface shape including a spherical shape, the same effect can be obtained.

[Second embodiment]
A second embodiment of the present invention will be described. FIG. 2 is a diagram for explaining one of the second embodiments according to the present invention. In FIG. 2, the biosignal measurement electrode 21 includes a plurality of electrodes 23 for detecting electrical signals generated in the body by contacting the surface of the body, and a substrate 22 on which the plurality of electrodes 23 are placed. 22 has a plurality of electrode installation sites 43, the plurality of electrode installation sites 43 are arranged regularly, and any of the electrode installation sites 43 is adjacent to the electrode installation site immediately adjacent to the electrode installation site. , and the plurality of electrodes 23 are arranged at the positions of the plurality of electrode installation sites 43 . In FIG. 2, the black circles on the substrate 22 are the electrode installation portions 43, and the electrodes 23 overlapped with the portions.

Here, the regularly arranged plurality of electrode installation sites 43 can also be expressed as being regularly arranged in a matrix as shown in FIG. In this matrix, odd-numbered rows and even-numbered rows form columns of different electrode placement sites that do not overlap.
In addition, the above-mentioned "the plurality of electrode installation sites 43 are arranged regularly, and the distance between each of the electrode installation sites 43 and the electrode installation sites immediately adjacent to the electrode installation site is the same." , explain what is meant by ``immediately adjacent''. In FIG. 2, there is one electrode placement site 30 in the center of the figure. FIG. 3 expresses electrode installation sites 31 to 36 that are immediately adjacent to this electrode installation site 30 . In FIG. 2, individual reference numerals are assigned to the electrode installation portion 30 and the electrode installation portion 33 in order to avoid cluttering the drawing. What is meant by "adjacent in the immediate vicinity" is adjoining in the immediate vicinity. Therefore, the electrode installation sites that are immediately adjacent to the electrode installation site 30 are the electrode installation sites 31 to 36 that are immediately adjacent to the electrode installation site 30, and are not the

electrode installation sites

201, 202, 203, 204, 205, or 206 in FIG. . The

electrode installation sites

201, 202, 203, 204, 205, or 206 in FIG.
Regarding the electrode installation sites according to the present invention, the terms "matrix", "regular", and "closely adjacent" described here also apply to the following description.

　The electrode installation part 43 will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. In FIG. 2, each of the electrode installation sites 43 is arranged such that the distances between the electrode installation sites 43 and the electrode installation sites immediately adjacent to the electrode installation site 43 are the same. The arrangement of the electrode installation sites will be explained again with reference to FIG. In FIG. 3, an electrode installation site 30 is one electrode installation site. All of the six electrode installation sites 31 to 36 adjacent around the electrode installation site 30 have the same distance 37 from the electrode installation site 30 .

In such an arrangement, the distance 39 between the electrode installation site 31 and the electrode installation site 32 is also equal to the distance 37. That is, the electrode installation site 30, the electrode installation site 32, and the electrode installation site 31 form an equilateral triangle. Thus, the arrangement of the electrode installation sites in the example of this embodiment can be said to be a group of equilateral triangles. FIG. 2 shows an example of this embodiment in which electrodes are installed at these electrode installation sites.

Here, regarding the example of the present embodiment, biosignal measurement electrodes in which the electrode installation sites are defined as a collection of equilateral triangles will also be described.
That is, the biosignal measurement electrode according to the present embodiment includes a plurality of electrodes for detecting electrical signals generated in a living body by contacting the surface of the living body, and a substrate on which the plurality of electrodes are placed. It has a plurality of electrode installation sites, the plurality of electrode installation sites are arranged regularly, and any of the electrode installation sites is two electrode installation sites that are immediately adjacent to the electrode installation site. In addition, inside the angle formed by the two sides connecting the electrode installation site and the two electrode installation sites, there is a side connecting the electrode installation site other than the two electrode installation sites and the electrode installation site. A triangle formed by two electrode installation sites immediately adjacent to the electrode installation site selected to be absent and the electrode installation site is an equilateral triangle, and the plurality of electrodes are equal to the plurality of electrode installation sites. It is an electrode for biosignal measurement installed at the position of .

This will be explained with reference to FIGS. That is, the biosignal measurement electrode 21 includes a plurality of electrodes 23 for detecting electrical signals generated in the body by contacting the surface of the body, and a substrate 22 on which the plurality of electrodes 23 are placed. A plurality of electrode installation sites 43 are provided, and the plurality of electrode installation sites 43 are arranged regularly. There are two adjacent electrode installation sites, for example, electrode installation sites 31 to 36 as candidates.
Then, the candidates for the two sides connecting the electrode installation site 30 and the two electrode installation sites, for example, the electrode installation sites 31 to 36 as candidates, are the sides formed by the electrode installation site 30 and the electrode installation site 31, The side formed by the electrode installation site 30 and the electrode installation site 32, the side formed by the electrode installation site 30 and the electrode installation site 33, the side formed by the electrode installation site 30 and the electrode installation site 34, the electrode installation site 30 and the electrode installation site 35 and the side formed by the electrode installation site 30 and the electrode installation site 36 . With regard to these sides, "there is an electrode installation site other than the two electrode installation sites and the electrode installation site within the angle formed by the two sides connecting the electrode installation site 30 and the two electrode installation sites. The two electrode installation sites that are immediately adjacent to the electrode installation site selected so that there is no side connecting the site" are a set of

electrode installation sites

31 and 32, a set of

electrode installation sites

32 and 33, and an electrode installation site. A set of portions 33 and 34, a set of electrode placement portions 34 and 35, a set of electrode placement portions 35 and 36, and a set of electrode placement portions 36 and 31 are formed. For example, in the pair of

electrode installation sites

31 and 33 other than these pairs, the angle formed by the side formed by the

electrode installation sites

30 and 31 and the side formed by the

electrode installation sites

30 and 33 is On the inside, depending on whether this angle is less than 180 degrees or greater than 180 degrees, the side formed by the electrode installation site 30 and the electrode installation site 32, or the electrode installation site 30 A side formed by the electrode installation site 34, a side formed by the electrode installation site 30 and the electrode installation site 35, and a side formed by the electrode installation site 30 and the electrode installation site 36 are present. It is selected so that there is no side connecting an electrode installation site other than the two electrode installation sites and the electrode installation site in question inside the angle formed by the two sides connecting the two electrode installation sites. not.
The set of

electrode placement sites

31 and 32, the set of

electrode placement sites

32 and 33, the set of electrode placement sites 33 and 34, the set of electrode placement sites 34 and 35, and the electrode placement sites 35 and 36 selected as described above. and the set of electrode placement sites 36 and 31, respectively,

triangles

30, 31, 32,

triangles

30, 32, 33,

triangles

30, 33, 34,

triangles

30, 34, 35,

triangle

30, 35, 36 and

triangles

30, 36, 31 are equilateral triangles. Here, "30 to 36", which are the codes of the electrode installation sites 30 to 36, are used to represent the vertices of the triangle.
A biosignal measuring electrode according to the present embodiment has a plurality of electrodes 23 installed at such electrode installation sites 43, for example, the electrode installation sites 30 to 36. FIG.
The above is the description of the arrangement of the electrode installation sites in the example of the present embodiment expressed as a group of equilateral triangles.

Again, the description of the second embodiment is continued, in which the distance between the electrode installation site and the electrode installation site immediately adjacent to the electrode installation site is the same.
When the electrodes are arranged as shown in FIG. 2, this electrode arrangement has the following features. That is, as described above, if any electrode-installed site is arranged so that the distance from the electrode-installed site immediately adjacent to that electrode-installed site is the same, any electrode that constitutes the array will be adjacent to the electrode at the same distance from the electrode-installed site. is in six orientations as viewed in FIG. 2: upper right orientation, right orientation, lower right orientation, lower left orientation, left orientation, and upper left orientation. In other words, when viewed in FIG. 2, there are three directions in which the electrodes are arranged at regular intervals. These three directions are indicated by dashed

lines

24, 25 and 26 in FIG.

The number of directions in which the electrodes are arranged at equal intervals is a measure of the number of muscles that can be measured simultaneously when multiple muscles exist in different directions on the plane of the measurement site and also exist in layers in the depth direction. give.
Therefore, when the substrate-shaped electrode of this embodiment is used as the biosignal measurement electrode, the standard number of muscles that can be measured is three, which is the number of arrays in which the electrodes are arranged at regular intervals. This has the advantageous effect of being more than two, which is the measurable measure of the conventional substrate-like electrodes mentioned in the Background Art. That is, the substrate-shaped electrode of this embodiment has the advantage of being able to easily measure more muscles at the same time than the conventional one.

Even if the surface of the living body has unevenness, the substrate-like electrode according to this embodiment is flexible to conform to the unevenness, so good electrical contact between the electrode and the surface of the living body can be obtained. Moreover, even when the surface of the living body fluctuates during measurement, good contact with the surface of the living body can be obtained, and good detection can be performed.

In the present embodiment, the electrode installation portion 43 may be anything as long as it recognizes its position, and may be, for example, a mark or a through hole for attaching an individual electrode. FIG. 4 shows an example in which the electrode installation portion 43 is a through hole. In FIG. 4 , circles on the substrate 22 indicate through holes as the electrode installation portions 43 . By forming the electrode installation portion 43 as a through hole, it is possible to determine the attachment position of each individual electrode and to easily attach each individual electrode.

In this embodiment, the material of the substrate may be a flexible, electrically insulating material such as silicone rubber, vinyl, or plastic. By using these materials, it is possible to obtain the effect that the substrate-shaped biosignal measurement electrode according to the present embodiment follows the uneven shape of the surface of the living body.

As described above, the material of the substrate may be a flexible material. However, the material of the substrate may be a hard material. The hard material is, for example, hard plastic. A substrate having a shape corresponding to the surface portion of the body to be measured, for example, the surface shape of the mandible when measuring the electromyogram of the suprahyoid muscle group, is formed of hard plastic, and the above electrodes are attached to the substrate. A structure in which an installation site is arranged and an electrode is installed in the electrode installation site is also a biological signal measurement electrode according to the present invention. Here, the substrate may not necessarily be flat, but the "distance" in the above "the distance between the electrode installation site and the electrode installation site immediately adjacent to the electrode installation site is equal" is not strictly a distance in a mathematical sense. Instead, it should be regarded as a distance that has a margin within the range in which it functions as an electrode for biosignal measurement.
Further, the substrate does not necessarily have to be planar, and it is sufficient if the electrode installation sites can be arranged and the electrodes can be installed thereon.
Furthermore, the substrate may be in the form of a sheet, for example, but it does not necessarily have to be in the form of a single sheet. The second embodiment also includes the arrangement of the installation sites and the placement of the electrodes to configure the biosignal measurement electrodes.

A case of measuring electromyograms of muscles belonging to the suprahyoid muscle group will be described using one example of the present embodiment.

The suprahyoid muscle group, as the name suggests, consists of multiple muscles. Beneath the geniohyoid muscle is the genioglossus extrinsic muscle. The thickness of the suprahyoid muscle group and the genioglossus muscle depends on the subject and is unknown. Furthermore, the location of the neuromuscular junction is similarly unclear. Therefore, it is difficult to determine the optimum electrode position. Relaxation of the genioglossus and geniohyoid muscles during REM sleep causes obstructive sleep apnea.

In order to deal with such situations, a method is known in which a large number of electrodes are arranged, the optimal electrode positions are estimated after looking at the measurement data, and the electromyogram is obtained using the signals obtained from the electrodes. This method is now called the reference difference method.

In normal electromyography measurement, the signals obtained from the two electrodes are amplified differentially, so the only data left is the result of subtracting these two signals. Therefore, the signal between arbitrary electrodes cannot be calculated|required after measurement. The reference difference method employs the following method.

A board-like electrode shown in FIG. 5 is used as an electrode for measuring an electromyogram of a muscle belonging to the suprahyoid muscle group. The electrodes shown in FIG. 5 are one example of the second embodiment. The electrode shown in FIG. 5 is referred to as a suprahyoid muscle group measurement electrode 51 for convenience of explanation.
Twelve individual electrodes are arranged in the suprahyoid muscle group measurement electrode 51 . A suitable electrode among these individual electrodes is used as a reference electrode. Now, suppose that the electrode B2 in the central portion of the whole electrode is used as a reference electrode.

FIG. 7 shows an example in which the suprahyoid muscle group measuring electrode 51 is installed so as to measure the electromyogram of the suprahyoid muscle group. In FIG. 7, the inside of the body is seen through so that the positional relationship between the muscle and the electrode can be clarified. In this figure, the geniohyoid muscle 81, the anterior digastric muscle 82, the mylohyoid muscle 83, the stylohyoid muscle 84, and the posterior digastric muscle 85 among the muscles constituting the suprahyoid muscle group are drawn. ing. A mandible 86 and a hyoid bone 87 are also present.
In electromyogram measurement, a signal obtained from each electrode of the suprahyoid muscle group measurement electrode and a signal obtained from the reference electrode B2 (this signal is abbreviated as " _VR ") are combined. Record the differentially amplified signal.

For example, let the signals obtained from electrode A1, electrode C2, electrode B1 and electrode D1 be V _A1 , V _C2 , V _B1 and V _D1 respectively. As shown in FIG. 6, the signals obtained by differentially amplifying the signals obtained from the electrode A1, the electrode C2, the electrode B1, and the electrode D1 with the signal obtained from the reference electrode are (V _A1 −V _R ) and ( V _C2 −V _R ), (V _B1 −V _R ) and (V _D1 −V _R ), and their difference signals will be recorded in the instrument. Similarly, the differential signal between the signal obtained from all the electrodes other than the reference electrode and the signal obtained from the reference electrode is recorded.

If differential signals are recorded for all electrodes in this manner, differential signals between any two electrodes can be obtained by arithmetic processing following measurement. For example, the difference signal (V _A1 −V _C2 ) between electrodes A1 and C2 can be obtained by the arithmetic processing of equation (1). A differential signal (V _B1 −V _D1 ) between the electrodes B1 and D1 can be obtained by the arithmetic processing of Equation (2).
[Formula 1] (V _A1 −V _R )−(V _C2 −V _R )=V _A1 −V _C2
[Formula 2] (V _B1 −V _R )−(V _D1 −V _R )=V _B1 −V _D1

By obtaining the difference signal between any two recording signals in this way, it is possible to obtain a signal in which the reference signal is canceled. It should be noted that this corresponds to obtaining a result similar to that of a bipolar induction signal between arbitrary electrodes. This is the description of the reference difference method.

As described above, in the reference difference method, it is possible to select any two electrodes after measurement and calculate the differential signal between the electrodes. By adopting the reference difference method, it is possible to select appropriate electrodes along an arbitrary muscle fiber direction and measure at arbitrary electrode intervals by arithmetic processing, so that the myoelectric potential of the muscle depending on the depth can be measured. Figures can also be measured.

The advantages of using these reference difference methods will be explained using the case of measuring electromyography of the suprahyoid muscle group as an example. In the case of this example, as shown in FIG. 7, the substrate-shaped biological signal measurement electrode 61 shown in FIG. 5 is installed so as to cover the suprahyoid muscle group. In this measurement, the electrode B2 is used as a reference electrode so as to facilitate measurement of muscles in a wide range. Since the reference electrode can be freely selected, an appropriate one should be selected for measurement. When the myoelectric potential is measured by placing the electrodes in this manner, a differential signal between the signal of each electrode and the signal of the reference electrode is obtained as described above.

For example, the electrodes used when acquiring an electromyogram of the geniohyoid muscle among the hyoid muscles are selected as follows. Considering the points to note in attaching the electrodes, ``Attach the detection electrodes in the direction of the muscle fibers'', ``Avoid the neuromuscular junction'', and ``Determine the electrode spacing considering the depth of the target muscle''. Then, the pair of electrode A1 and electrode C2 and the pair of electrode B1 and electrode D1 are raised as candidates adapted to the geniohyoid muscle. For these pairs, the calculations in the

above formulas

1 and 2 are performed, the obtained results are examined for signal strength, etc., and an appropriate electrode pair is selected. Adopted as electromyogram data suitable for

This reference difference method can be used even with substrate-like electrodes in which a large number of electrodes are arranged on a conventional substrate. However, the biosignal measuring electrode of the second embodiment can obtain advantageous effects not found in conventional substrate-like electrodes, as described below.

In the biosignal measurement electrodes of this embodiment, the electrodes are arranged as shown in FIGS. As described in the background art, muscles sometimes exist in layers in the depth direction from the surface of the body, and some of them extend in different directions on a plane. When simultaneously measuring electromyograms of a plurality of muscles in such a complicated site, it is necessary to arrange a plurality of electrodes used for measurement along the muscle fibers of the muscles to be measured. , are advantageously arranged at reasonably short intervals.

Therefore, when the substrate-shaped electrodes of this embodiment are used as the electrodes, the number of streaks that can be measured is three, which is the number of arrays in which the electrodes are arranged at regular intervals. This has the advantageous effect of being more than two, which is the measurable measure of the conventional substrate-like electrodes mentioned in the Background Art. That is, the substrate-like electrode of this embodiment has the advantage of being able to measure more muscles at the same time than the conventional one.

Due to the fact that a large number of muscles can be measured at the same time, it can be used even when the muscle fibers of multiple muscles extend in various directions. In this case, there is an effect that the tolerance for misalignment of the mounting position is greater than that of the conventional method, that is, the measurement can be performed even if the position deviates to some extent. This is because even if a certain electrode pair is misaligned, there is a high possibility that another electrode pair will be placed at a desired position.

Earlier, I described an example of obtaining an electromyogram of the geniohyoid muscle of the suprahyoid muscle group. In this case, by appropriately selecting a pair of electrodes, it is possible to measure the electromyogram of the genioglossus muscle located deep in the geniohyoid muscle when viewed from the mandibular side. As described above, the electrode according to the present embodiment can be applied to a complicated site where muscles exist in layers in the depth direction from the surface of a living body, and some of them extend in different directions on a plane. It has the effect of being able to simultaneously measure electromyograms of muscles.

The second embodiment is more effective when combined with the first embodiment. That is, the individual electrodes attached to the substrate in the second embodiment may have a convex shape or a dome shape on the surface of the electrode that contacts the living body, and the dome shape includes a spherical shape. It may be a quadratic surface. These electrode surface shapes produce the effects described in the first embodiment.

In particular, in the biosignal measurement electrode of the second embodiment, each individual electrode on the substrate is often arranged on a site where the biomedical surface is not flat but curved. Even in such a case, if the substrate is flexible, it follows the shape of the living body surface. Good contact is obtained.

In the second embodiment, the distance between the electrode installation sites, that is, the distance 37 in FIG. 3, in other words, the distance between individual electrodes installed on the substrate can be set arbitrarily. Good measurements are obtained when this distance is between 0.5 cm and 2 cm, such as 0.5 cm or more, 1 cm or more, or 1.5 cm or more and 2 cm or less, 1.5 cm or less, or 1 cm or less.

Further improvements are made to the outer shape of the substrate in the second embodiment. The outer shape of the substrate is made to correspond to the shape of the body part having the muscle to be measured. That is, the outer shape of the substrate-like electrode is formed so that the electrode is placed at the position corresponding to the muscle to be measured when the outer shape is arranged so as to match the surface of the living body.
With this construction, if the outer shape of the substrate-shaped electrodes is arranged in conformity with the surface shape of the object to be measured and the muscle, the electrodes can be arranged at appropriate positions for measuring the muscle. This device reduces the labor required for electrode placement and enables efficient measurement.

An example of this device is the substrate-shaped electrode shown in FIG. If the electrode shown in FIG. 5 is arranged such that the lower side of the substrate-like electrode in this figure is placed at the throat of the subject to be measured, and the entire substrate-like electrode is positioned at the center of the jaw, it will be as shown in FIG. In addition, it is arranged so as to cover the suprahyoid muscle group, which is the object of measurement.

In the second embodiment, the electrode installation site may be a mark as described above. If it is a mark, it receives an individual electrode at the mark position.

The second embodiment is further devised. In this method, individual electrodes are installed at discrete electrode installation sites on a substrate on which electrode installation sites are arranged. The substrate-shaped electrodes shown in FIG. 8 are obtained by installing individual electrodes at every other electrode installation portion of the substrate shown in FIG. 4 . In FIG. 8, white circles and black circles are electrode installation sites, and black circles are locations where electrodes are attached to the electrode installation sites. Since the distance between the individual electrodes is set according to the depth of the muscle from the surface of the living body, by arranging the individual electrodes as in the present embodiment, one substrate-like electrode can be used to treat muscles of different depths at different sites. has the advantage of being compatible with In particular, a substrate in which the distance between each electrode installation portion formed on the substrate is small enough to prevent the individual electrodes from interfering with each other is used when individual electrodes are installed in all electrode installation portions, or in discrete electrode installation portions. There is an advantage that one substrate can be used for multiple purposes, such as when placing electrodes.

In each of the above-described embodiments, the individual electrodes were made of silicon rubber with a hemispherical portion diameter of 6 mm (radius of 3 mm), a center-to-center distance of 15 mm, and a thickness of 0.1 mm for the substrate material. . Silicon rubber has good electrical insulation and is flexible. Therefore, when it is used as the substrate of the present embodiment, even if the substrate-like electrode has unevenness on the surface of the living body, the substrate-like electrode will follow the unevenness on the surface of the body. A good electrical contact with the biological surface was obtained.

In the above-described second embodiment, the biosignal measurement electrodes are configured based on the concept of electrode installation sites. The biosignal measurement electrodes according to the second embodiment can also be configured from the viewpoint of a plurality of regularly arranged individual electrodes without directly involving the concept of electrode installation sites. This configuration will be described below as another example of the second embodiment.
That is, the biological signal measurement electrode according to another example of the second embodiment includes a plurality of electrodes for detecting electrical signals generated in the living body by coming into contact with the surface of the living body, and a substrate on which the plurality of electrodes are installed. wherein the plurality of electrodes are regularly arranged on the substrate, and are arranged such that the distance between any electrode of the plurality of electrodes is equal to the electrode adjacent to the electrode. It is an electrode for biosignal measurement of a structure. The biosignal measurement electrode configured in this manner has the same effect as the biosignal measurement electrode in which the electrode is installed via the electrode installation site in the above-described second embodiment.
In this way, it is possible to construct a biosignal measurement electrode that exhibits the same effects as those of the second embodiment without directly involving the concept of the electrode installation site. Here, without directly referring to the concept of the electrode installation site, it means that as a result of installing a plurality of electrodes on the substrate, the installation position becomes the electrode installation site as a result. In other words, the biological signal measurement electrode is configured indirectly through the concept of the electrode installation site. The configuration without the concept of the electrode installation site as described here also falls within the scope of the second embodiment.

[Third Embodiment]
A third embodiment of the present invention is an electrode for detecting an electrical signal generated in a living body by contacting the surface of the living body, the electrode having a fastening structure on the back surface of the surface of the electrode that contacts the living body; It comprises a fastening member corresponding to a fastening structure, and a substrate on which the electrode is installed, wherein the electrode is fastened to the fastening structure by the fastening member so as to sandwich the substrate.

An example of the third embodiment will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 9 is an example of a third embodiment of the invention. In FIG. 9, an electrode 90 that detects an electrical signal generated in a living body by contacting the surface of the living body, and has a fastening structure 92 on the back side of the surface of the electrode that contacts the living body, and the fastening structure 92. and a substrate 13 on which an electrode 90 is installed.
In this example, the retaining structure 92 is an external thread and the retaining member 93 is a nut corresponding to the retaining structure 92 . When the electrode 90 is fixed to the substrate 13 as shown in this example, it can be fixed via the lead terminal 95 . The substrate 13 is shown in dashed lines so that the external threads, which are the fastening structures 92 formed on the electrodes 90, can be seen through.
In this example, the surface of the electrode that comes into contact with the living body is the spherical surface 12 described in the first embodiment. By adopting the configuration described in this example, there is an advantage that the electrodes can be easily attached and detached from the substrate.

A different example of this embodiment is shown in FIG. In FIG. 10, the electrode 100 has a spherical surface 12 that contacts the living body, and has a pin 102 as a fastening structure on the back of the surface that contacts the living body. A fastener 103 that engages with this pin is used for locking. The pin 102 and fastener 103 are the same as those used to fasten an insignia or the like.
In addition to this example, the mechanism of banana plugs used in electrical terminals may be used as the electrode locking means. A banana plug is formed on the back side of the surface of the electrode that comes into contact with the living body, and a plug receiver corresponding to this plug is used to fix the electrode by sandwiching the substrate. The substrate may have a plurality of electrodes, or may have a single electrode.

In any of the configurations described in this embodiment, the electrodes can be easily attached to and removed from the substrate.

The configuration in this embodiment can also be combined with the configuration described in the first embodiment or the second embodiment.

By combining the configuration of this embodiment with the configuration described in the second embodiment, individual electrodes can be quickly installed on the substrate on which the electrode installation sites are arranged. By preparing a single substrate on which electrodes are placed, it is possible to replace individual electrodes corresponding to the areas where there is a muscle to be measured for electromyography. There is an effect of resource saving and cost reduction without using electrodes.

Furthermore, when the configuration of this embodiment is combined with the configuration described in the first embodiment and the second embodiment, when the configuration of the present embodiment described above is combined with the configuration described in the second embodiment In addition to the effect of 1, the effect of the first embodiment is also exhibited.

In the combination of the second embodiment and the third embodiment and the combination of the first embodiment, the second embodiment, and the third embodiment, the material of the substrate in the second embodiment is flexible. It may be made of an electrically insulating material having properties such as silicone rubber, vinyl, plastic, and the like. These combinations produce the effects of the respective embodiments.

[Fourth embodiment]
A fourth embodiment of the present invention will be described. A fourth embodiment includes a plurality of electrodes that come into contact with the surface of a living body to detect electrical signals generated in a living body, and a substrate on which the plurality of electrodes are installed, and the substrate has a plurality of electrode installation sites. and the plurality of electrode installation sites are arranged regularly, and each of the electrode installation sites has an equal distance from an electrode installation site immediately adjacent to the electrode installation site, and the plurality of The electrode has a smooth convex shape on the surface that contacts the living body, and has a fastening structure on the back surface of the surface that contacts the living body of the electrode. A method for manufacturing a biosignal measuring electrode, comprising the steps of: arranging a plurality of electrodes at positions of electrode installation sites; and fastening the plurality of electrodes at the positions with fastening members corresponding to the fastening structure so as to sandwich the substrate. is. Here, the regularly arranged plurality of electrode installation sites can also be expressed as being regularly arranged in a matrix.

An example of this manufacturing method will be described with reference to FIGS. 2, 3, 4 and 9. The manufacturing method of the biosignal measuring electrode comprises a plurality of electrodes 90 shown in FIG. 9 for contacting the surface of the living body to detect electrical signals generated in the living body, and a substrate 22 on which the plurality of electrodes shown in FIG. The substrate 22 has through holes as a plurality of electrode installation sites 43, and the plurality of electrode installation sites 43 are regularly arranged as described with reference to FIGS. The electrode installation site 43 also has the same distance to the adjacent electrode installation site, and the plurality of electrodes 90 has a spherical surface 12 with a smooth convex surface that comes into contact with the living body. A method for manufacturing a biosignal measuring electrode having a male screw as a fastening structure 92 on the back surface of the surface of the electrode 90 that contacts the living body, wherein the plurality of electrodes 90 are placed at the position of the electrode installation site 43 and a step of fastening the plurality of electrodes 90 at the above positions with nuts, which are fastening members 93 corresponding to male screws of fastening structures 92 so as to sandwich the substrate 22 .

In the fourth embodiment, there is an effect that individual electrodes can be installed at appropriate electrode installation sites on one substrate, for example, the substrate 22, depending on the purpose of measuring biosignals. In particular, when a male screw is used as the fastening structure 92 and a nut is used as the fastening member 93, there is an advantage that individual electrodes can be installed and removed quickly.

In the fourth embodiment, the electrodes for measuring biological signals described in the first embodiment can be used as the plurality of electrodes that contact the surface of the living body to detect electrical signals generated in the living body. The substrate described in the second embodiment can be used as the substrate on which the is installed, and the biological signal measurement electrode described in the first embodiment described in the third embodiment can be used. The configuration of the electrodes can be taken.

That is, in the fourth embodiment, the substrate 22 is made of a flexible insulating material, and includes a plurality of electrodes that contact the surface of the living body to detect electrical signals generated in the living body. The surface has a dome shape including a spherical surface, a male screw as a fastening structure is provided on the back of the surface of the electrode that contacts the living body, and a fastening member corresponding to the fastening structure is a nut corresponding to the male screw. It can be.

By adopting the manufacturing method described above, it is possible to obtain substrate-like electrodes having the configurations and effects of the first, second, and third embodiments.

[Fifth embodiment]
An example of a fifth embodiment according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 11 and 12. FIG.
FIG. 11 shows a case of measuring an electromyogram of an arm muscle using a substrate-like biosignal measuring electrode 110 having a large number of electrodes arranged on the substrate. The electrode fixing aid according to the present invention shown in FIG. An electrode fixing aid 111 that abuts on a part 115 of an arm, wherein the electrode fixing aid 111 is a bag body 120 containing a fluid material, and the bag body 120 is in contact with the arm that is a living body. It is arranged so as to cover the arranged substrate-like biosignal measuring electrode 110 . Therefore, in the fifth embodiment, the measurement includes: a) a step of placing the substrate-shaped biosignal measurement electrode at the measurement site of the living body; and c) measuring an electromyogram. In some cases, the electrode fixing aid may be integrated with the substrate-shaped biosignal measurement electrode. In that case, steps a and b of the above method would be realized simultaneously.

Conventionally, when measuring an electromyogram by placing a substrate-like electrode on a curved part of the arm, since the part where the substrate-like electrode is placed is curved, the individual electrodes installed on that substrate-like electrode are not installed. In some cases, good contact with the living body surface could not be obtained depending on the place where it was applied.

In the example shown in FIG. 11, an electrode fixing aid 111 is used. The electrode fixing aid 111 contains a fluid material in the bag 120 . Therefore, in the electrode fixing aid 111, the pressure applied to the inner surface of the bag body 120 by the fluid material acts uniformly on that surface according to Pascal's principle. As a result, the electrode fixing aid 111 arranged to cover the substrate-shaped biosignal measurement electrode 110 uniformly presses the substrate-shaped biosignal measurement electrode 110 together with its own weight. Individual electrodes placed at 110 are pressed against the biological surface. As a result, the individual electrodes are in good contact with the living body.

Since the electrode fixing aid 111 has the above-described effects, in the example shown in FIG. Since the auxiliary tool 111 presses the substrate-like biosignal-measuring electrode 110 uniformly, the individual electrodes constituting the substrate-like biosignal-measuring electrode 110 are pressed against the surface of the living body, and the individual electrodes are in contact with the living body. good contact can be obtained.
Good contact between the electrode surface and the surface of the living body can be maintained even when the part where the substrate-shaped electrode is arranged has a complex shape that is not monotonous. In addition, even if the shape of the surface of the living body changes due to repeated contraction and relaxation of the target muscle during measurement, and the contact state between the electrode surface and the surface of the living body changes, the individual electrodes will not can maintain good contact with

In the above description, the fluid material contained in the bag body 120 may be any material that operates on a principle equivalent to Pascal's principle described above. It may be selected. Furthermore, any material, such as an aggregate of beads, which, when contained in the bag body 120, exerts a uniform pressure on the surface of the bag body 120, may be included in the fluid material referred to herein. be. These fluid materials allow the electrode-fixing aid to press the substrate-like biosignal-measuring electrode uniformly without bias, and as a result, the individual electrodes can be brought into good contact with the living body. It is something that can be done.

In the above description, the fluid material should not be filled to the full capacity of the bag body 120, but should be filled with a margin in the capacity of the bag body so as to conform to the body surface shape of the subject to be measured. For example, the amount of fluid material enclosed in the bag is 30% to 80% of the capacity of the bag, such as 30% or more, 40% or more, 50% or more, 60% or more, or 70% or more and 80%. 70% or less, 60% or less, 50% or less, or 40% or less. By enclosing the fluid material in this manner, the electrode-fixing aid can press the substrate-shaped biosignal-measuring electrode uniformly without bias, and as a result, the individual electrodes are in good contact with the living body. contact is obtained.

In the above description, it is desirable that the bag body 120 has a single chamber inside. This is because when the room is divided into a plurality of rooms, a uniform pressure is not applied to the electrodes in contact with the division of the rooms. In the case of a single room, uniform pressure is applied to any individual electrode that the electrode fixation aid abuts without dividing the room.

Furthermore, in the fifth embodiment, the individual electrodes constituting the substrate-like biosignal measurement electrode 110 may be the same as those described in the first embodiment. In this case, the effects described in the first embodiment are obtained. That is, when the shape of the surface of the individual electrode that contacts the living body is a dome shape including a convex shape and a spherical surface, the electrode surface and the living body can be easily contacted even if the part where the substrate-shaped electrode is arranged has a complex shape that is not monotonous. Good contact with the surface is maintained. In addition, even if the shape of the surface of the living body changes due to repeated contraction and relaxation of the target muscle during measurement, and the contact state between the electrode surface and the surface of the living body changes, the individual electrodes will not can maintain good contact with

Furthermore, the fifth embodiment can be configured together with the first, second, and third embodiments. By configuring in this way, the functions and effects of the respective embodiments are exhibited at the same time.

Furthermore, the fifth embodiment can be configured with the first, second and fourth embodiments. By configuring in this way, the functions and effects of the respective embodiments are exhibited at the same time.
[Sixth embodiment]

A sixth embodiment according to the present invention will be described by taking the biological signal measuring device shown in FIG. 13 as an example.
The biosignal measuring apparatus shown in FIG. 13 utilizes the configuration of the electrode fixing aid in the fifth embodiment, and includes a substrate-shaped biosignal measuring electrode 110 in which a large number of electrodes are arranged on a substrate. This shows a case where electromyography is measured for the suprahyoid muscle group by applying it to the site of . In FIG. 13, the electrode-fixing aid includes a substrate-like biosignal measuring electrode 110 in which a plurality of electrodes for contacting and detecting electrical signals generated in the living body are arranged on the substrate. 130, the electrode fixing aid 111 is a bag body 120 containing a fluid material, and the bag body 120 is placed in contact with the chin to support the substrate-like biosignal. It is arranged to cover the measurement electrode 110 . Further, an example of the biosignal measuring device according to the sixth embodiment is composed of a pressing member 131 that holds the electrode fixing aid 111 together with the substrate-like biosignal measuring electrode 110 .

In the sixth embodiment, the pressing member can bring the substrate-shaped biosignal measurement electrode 110 into closer contact with the measurement target site via the electrode fixing aid 111 .

In the above description, the pressing member 131 is shaped like a table on which the chin of the person to be measured is placed. This pressing member has a shape following the shape of the jaw, and in addition to the effects of the electrode fixing aid 111, the substrate-shaped biosignal measuring electrode 110 is brought into closer contact with the jaw region. can be made
Good contact between the electrode surface and the surface of the living body can be maintained even when the part where the substrate-like biological signal measuring electrode 110 is arranged has a complex shape that is not monotonous. In addition, even if the shape of the surface of the living body changes due to repeated contraction and relaxation of the target muscle during measurement, and the contact state between the electrode surface and the surface of the living body changes, the individual electrodes will not can maintain good contact with

In addition to the configuration described above, the pressing member may have a mechanism for adjusting the height. The pressing member according to the physique of the person whose biosignal is to be measured by adjusting the height allows the substrate-shaped biosignal measurement electrode to be in better contact with the biomedical surface via the electrode fixing aid. can be done.

In the above description of the sixth embodiment, the pressing member 131 has a form like a table on which the chin of the person to be measured is placed. What is necessary is just to press the biosignal measurement electrode 110 via the biosignal measurement electrode 110 following the shape of the measurement site of the person to be measured. The pressing member may be a belt that allows the electrode fixing aid 111 to follow the shape of the jaw of the subject through the biosignal measurement electrode. FIG. 14 shows an example of a belt 141 that wraps around the entire head from the chin. FIG. 14 shows a case of applying a substrate-shaped biosignal measuring electrode 110 having a large number of electrodes arranged on the substrate to the jaw region to measure an electromyogram of the suprahyoid muscle group, as in the case of FIG. is shown. The electrode fixation aid 111 is a belt attached to the head 140 of the person to be measured through the biosignal measurement electrode so as to follow the shape of the jaw of the person to be measured. Even with such a configuration, it has the effects of the sixth embodiment.

The configuration of the sixth embodiment can also be configured together with the configurations of the first to fourth embodiments. By combining the embodiments in this manner, the effects of each embodiment can be obtained.

The first to sixth embodiments have been described so far.
In the substrate-shaped biosignal measurement electrodes described in the second embodiment and the embodiment combined with the second embodiment, the electrode installation site and the array of individual electrodes arranged at the site as shown in FIG. may be arranged in two rows in the first row, three in the second row, four in the fourth row, and three in the fifth row. Suitably the distance is between 0.5 cm and 2 cm, such as 0.5 cm or more, 1 cm or more, or 1.5 cm or more and 2 cm or less, 1.5 cm or less, or 1 cm or less. By configuring in this way, the effect of the second embodiment can be exhibited particularly in the measurement of the suprahyoid muscle group.

In each embodiment, an example of the specifications of the individual electrodes and the substrate on which the electrodes are arranged used for manufacturing is as follows. Each individual electrode has a spherical contact surface with a living body, and the surface is plated with gold. The diameter of the hemispherical portion of the individual electrodes is 6 mm (3 mm radius). The electrode is provided with a male screw of 3 mmφ as a locking structure, and is locked to a silicon rubber substrate of 0.1 mm in thickness with a corresponding nut. Each individual electrode is connected to a measuring instrument via a wire.

In each of the embodiments and combinations of the embodiments described above, a dome-shaped shape including a convex shape and a spherical surface as a surface in contact with the living body of the electrode for detecting electrical signals generated in the living body by contacting the surface of the living body. may be dome-shaped, including a convex shape and a spherical surface that bite into the skin surface, respectively. Such a configuration provides good contact between the electrodes and the skin in each of the embodiments and combinations of the embodiments described above.

FIG. 15 shows an example of the configuration of the entire biological signal measuring device according to the sixth embodiment. Reference numeral 151 denotes a cable 151 that transmits electrical signals received by the individual electrodes arranged on the substrate-like biosignal measuring electrode 110 . The cable 151 is represented by a single line by simplifying what is made up of a plurality of electric wires. This cable also includes a cable for transmitting the electrical signal received by the reference electrode described in the second embodiment. The electrical signals received by the individual electrodes are transmitted to signal processor 150 via cable 151 . The signal processing device 150 processes the electrical signals of individual electrodes including the reference electrode, performs calculations by the reference difference method described in the second embodiment, and processes differential signals and electromyographic data related to each individual electrode. is output and displayed.

FIG. 16 shows an example of measurement data obtained by measuring the myoelectric potential of the suprahyoid muscle group using the example of the biological signal measuring apparatus shown in FIG. This measurement data is a difference signal from the signal of the reference electrode for each individual electrode described above. A reference electrode was placed on the jaw. In this measurement, the substrate-shaped biosignal measurement electrode shown in FIG. 5 was used. The substrate-shaped biosignal measuring electrodes are arranged as shown in FIG. In this arrangement, the distance between each individual electrode was 15 mm.
Silicon rubber having a thickness of 0.1 mm was used for the substrate of the substrate-shaped biosignal measurement electrode. The reference numerals such as electrode A1 shown in FIG. 15 correspond to the identification codes of the individual electrodes arranged on the substrate-shaped biosignal measurement electrodes. The surface of each individual electrode arranged on the substrate-like biomedical signal measuring electrode, which is in contact with the biomedical surface, is spherical as shown in FIG. The surface of each individual electrode, which is in contact with the surface of the living body, is plated with gold. Each of these individual electrodes adopts the configuration shown in FIG. 9 described in the third embodiment, and the fastening structure is an M3 male screw, and the fastening member is an M3 nut. During the measurement, as shown in FIG. 15, an electrode fixing aid 111 and a pressing member 131 are used. The electrode fixing aid 111 is obtained by enclosing a mixture of a water-absorbing polymer and water in a plastic bag about 60% of the capacity of the bag.
In FIG. 16, the vertical and horizontal axes of only the first example of the 11 waveform data graphs are enlarged in order to avoid confusion in the figure, but other waveform data are also shown. The vertical and horizontal scales are the same as in the first example. The vertical axis of each graph is myoelectric potential obtained by taking the difference, and the horizontal axis is time. As shown in FIG. 16, a clear myoelectric signal could be obtained by the biological signal measuring device according to the present invention.

FIG. 18 shows an example of measurement data obtained by measuring the myoelectric potential of a muscle other than the suprahyoid muscle group using the example of the biological signal measuring apparatus shown in FIG. The measured site is the left forearm shown in FIG. The conditions for the substrate and the individual electrodes on the substrate used for the measurements are the same as for the measurements on the suprahyoid muscles described above. Therefore, for the sake of convenience, the name of the substrate-shaped electrode used is the suprahyoid muscle group measurement electrode 51 . The electrode fixing aid 111 is also the same. As shown in FIG. 17, the suprahyoid muscle group measuring electrode 51 was attached, and the electrode fixing aid 111 was placed over the suprahyoid muscle group measuring electrode 51 to perform the measurement. The reference electrode was set at the reference electrode position 181 in FIG.
In FIG. 18, as in the case of FIG. 16, the display of the vertical and horizontal axes is enlarged only for the first example of the 11 waveform data in order to avoid congestion in the figure. Other waveform data also have the same vertical and horizontal scales as in the first example. The vertical axis of each graph is myoelectric potential obtained by taking the difference, and the horizontal axis is time. As shown in FIG. 18, a clear myoelectric signal could be obtained by the biological signal measuring device according to the present invention.

In the above description, an example in which the diameter of the hemispherical portion of the spherical electrode is 6 mm is shown, but this diameter is between about 2 mm and 7 mm, for example, 2 mm or more, 3 mm or more, 4 mm or more, 5 mm or more, or 6 mm or more. , and 7 mm or less, 6 mm or less, 5 mm or less, 4 mm or less, or 3 mm or less. In addition, regarding the second embodiment and the combination of the second embodiment and other embodiments, the distance between the immediately adjacent electrode installation sites with respect to the substrate-shaped biosignal measuring electrode is 0 as described in the above example. The length is not limited to 0.5 cm to 2 cm, and 1 cm to 1.5 cm is more preferable. Further, in the substrate-shaped biosignal measuring electrodes described in connection with Embodiments 22 to 25 and in relation to these embodiments, there is one example of how to arrange the plurality of electrode installation sites that are regularly arranged. 2 in the first row, 3 in the second row, 4 in the 4th row, and 3 in the 5th row. It can be determined as appropriate.

The present invention can be used as electrodes, fixation aids, and measuring devices for measuring electrical signals generated in vivo, including acquisition of electromyograms of muscles.

11... Electrode 12... Spherical surface 14... Biological surface 21... Biological signal measuring electrode 22... Substrate 23... Electrode 43... Electrode installation site 51... Suprahyoid muscle Group measurement electrode 92... Fixing structure 93... Fixing member 111... Electrode fixing aid 120... Bag body 131... Pressing member

Claims

comprising a plurality of electrodes for contacting and detecting electrical signals generated in the living body on the surface of the living body, and a substrate on which the plurality of electrodes are installed,
The substrate has a plurality of electrode installation sites,
The plurality of electrode installation sites are regularly arranged,
Any of the electrode installation sites has the same distance from the electrode installation site immediately adjacent to the electrode installation site,
The biosignal measuring electrode, wherein the plurality of electrodes are installed at the positions of the plurality of electrode installation sites.
The biosignal measuring electrode according to claim 1, wherein the electrode installation site is a through hole formed in the substrate.
The biosignal measurement electrode according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the substrate is made of a flexible, electrically insulating material.
The biosignal measurement according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein said flexible, electrically insulating material is selected from the group consisting of silicone rubber, vinyl, and plastic. electrode.
An electrode fixing assisting tool for contacting a living body with a substrate-like biological signal measuring electrode having a plurality of electrodes arranged on a substrate for detecting electrical signals generated in the living body by coming into contact with the surface of the living body, the electrode fixing aid comprising: The auxiliary tool is a bag body containing a fluid material, and the bag body is arranged to cover the substrate-like biological signal measurement electrode arranged in contact with the living body. Auxiliary.
5. The fluid material contained in the bag is selected from the group consisting of a mixture of water-absorbing polymer and water, liquid, oil, gas, powder, and an aggregate of beads. The electrode fixing aid according to .
comprising a plurality of electrodes for contacting and detecting electrical signals generated in the living body on the surface of the living body, and a substrate on which the plurality of electrodes are installed,
Furthermore, the electrode fixing aid according to claim 5;
A biosignal measuring apparatus comprising a pressing member that holds the electrode fixing aid according to claim 5 together with the substrate-like biosignal measuring electrode according to claim 5 .
The biomedical signal measuring device according to claim 7, wherein the pressing member is a base that supports the measurement target site of the measurement subject.
The biosignal measuring device according to claim 8, wherein the table supporting the measurement target site of the measurement subject has a height adjustment mechanism.
In the biosignal measurement electrode,
The array of the plurality of regularly arranged electrode placement sites includes two in the first row, three in the second row, four in the fourth row, and three in the fifth row. and
Any one of the electrode installation sites is equal in distance to the electrode installation site immediately adjacent to the electrode installation site, and the distance is between 0.5 cm and 2 cm. 5. The biological signal measurement electrode according to any one of 4.