Electrotactile Sensory Magnitude and Quality

描述(由申请人提供)： 触觉的电刺激(电触觉或电皮肤刺激)已显示出广泛的应用前景，在这些应用中，信息被真实地呈现给人类用户。这些包括为严重视觉和听觉障碍的人，以及因创伤性神经损伤或疾病而在某些皮肤部位失去触觉感觉的人，以及先进的机器人外科技术和其他应用而设计的感觉假体。在过去的三十年里，许多这样的概念得到了实施和测试。然而，这些努力在很大程度上是特定于应用的，总体上受到缺乏理论框架和基础研究的阻碍，这些研究旨在了解电触觉反应的基本知觉特征。 拟议的发现驱动研究旨在研究这种独特的信息显示方法的密集和定性的心理物理学，特别是：(1)表征电触觉的动态范围作为物理刺激参数的函数，特别是那些历史上难以控制电触觉的参数(如皮肤轨迹和水合作用)，以及(2)表征电触觉(触觉颜色)的定性或主观性质作为波形定时的函数。 这些结果将使我们未来的目标是开发特定的刺激控制方案和刺激参数，最大限度地提高电触觉的动态范围和可控性。长期的结果将是医疗、工业和消费应用中卓越的触觉通信手段。 第二个结果将是对电触觉刺激感知空间的初步但定量的描述；这将有助于未来旨在揭示触觉电刺激背后的生理机制的研究。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Electrical stimulation of touch (electrotactile or electrocutaneous stimulation) has shown promise for a wide variety of applications in which information is presented tactually to human users. These include sensory prostheses for persons with serious visual and auditory impairments, as well as for those who have lost tactile sensation on some cutaneous loci due to traumatic nerve injury or disease, and also for advanced robotic surgical techniques and other applications. Over the last thirty years, many such concepts been implemented and tested. However, these efforts have been largely application- specific and in general hampered by a lack of both theoretical framework and fundamental research aimed at understanding the basic perceptual characteristics of the electrotactile response. The proposed discovery-driven research aims to study the intensive and qualitative psychophysics of this unique method of information display, and specifically to: (1) Characterize the dynamic range of the electrotactile percept as a function of physical stimulus parameters, particularly those (such as cutaneous locus and hydration) that historically have made it difficult to control the electrotactile percept, and (2) Characterize the qualitative or subjective nature of the electrotactile percept ("tactile color") as a function of waveform timing. These results will enable our future goal of developing specific stimulus control schemes and stimulus parameters that maximize the dynamic range and controllability of the electrotactile percept. The long-term result will be superior tactile communication means for medical, industrial, and consumer applications. A secondary result will be a preliminary but quantitative description of the electrotactile stimulus-percept space; this will aid future research aiming to uncover the physiological mechanisms underlying electrical stimulation of touch.