Article

Consistency is one of the most important concerns to convey stable
artificially induced sensory feedback. However, the constancy of perceived
sensations cannot be guaranteed, as the artificially evoked sensation is a
function of the interaction of stimulation parameters. The hypothesis of this
study is that the selected stimulation parameters in multi-electrode cutaneous
stimulation have significant impacts on the perception threshold. METHODS: The
investigated parameters included the stimulated location, the number of active
electrodes, the number of pulses, and the interleaved time between a pair of
electrodes. Biphasic, rectangular pulses were applied via five surface electrodes
placed on the forearm of 12 healthy subjects. RESULTS: Our main findings were: 1)
the perception thresholds at the five stimulated locations were significantly
different (p < 0.0001), 2) dual-channel simultaneous stimulation lowered the
perception thresholds and led to smaller variance in perception thresholds
compared to single-channel stimulation, 3) the perception threshold was inversely
related to the number of pulses, and 4) the perception threshold increased with
increasing interleaved time when the interleaved time between two electrodes was
below 500 mus. CONCLUSIONS: To maintain a consistent perception threshold, our
findings indicate that dual-channel simultaneous stimulation with at least five
pulses should be used, and that the interleaved time between two electrodes
should be longer than 500 mus. We believe that these findings have implications
for design of reliable sensory feedback codes.

Langue : ANGLAIS