Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Flesher, Sharlene N
• Collinger, Jennifer L
• Foldes, Stephen T
• Weiss, Jeffrey M
• Downey, John E
• Tyler-Kabara, Elizabeth C
• Bensmaia, Sliman J
• Schwartz, Andrew B
• Boninger, Michael L
• Gaunt, Robert A

Titel

Intracortical microstimulation of human somatosensory cortex

Ist Teil von

• Science translational medicine, 2016-10, Vol.8 (361), p.361ra141

Ort / Verlag

United States

Erscheinungsjahr

2016

Quelle

MEDLINE

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Intracortical microstimulation of the somatosensory cortex offers the potential for creating a sensory neuroprosthesis to restore tactile sensation. Whereas animal studies have suggested that both cutaneous and proprioceptive percepts can be evoked using this approach, the perceptual quality of the stimuli cannot be measured in these experiments. We show that microstimulation within the hand area of the somatosensory cortex of a person with long-term spinal cord injury evokes tactile sensations perceived as originating from locations on the hand and that cortical stimulation sites are organized according to expected somatotopic principles. Many of these percepts exhibit naturalistic characteristics (including feelings of pressure), can be evoked at low stimulation amplitudes, and remain stable for months. Further, modulating the stimulus amplitude grades the perceptual intensity of the stimuli, suggesting that intracortical microstimulation could be used to convey information about the contact location and pressure necessary to perform dexterous hand movements associated with object manipulation.