Electrotactile Sensory Magnitude and Quality

描述（由申请人提供）： 触摸的电刺激（电触觉或电皮肤刺激）已经显示出用于各种各样的应用的前景，其中信息被触觉地呈现给人类用户。这些包括为严重视觉和听觉障碍者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的人提供的感觉假体，以及先进的机器人手术技术和其他应用。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，并且通常受到缺乏旨在理解电触觉响应的基本感知特性的理论框架和基础研究的阻碍。 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心理物理学，特别是：（1）将电触觉感受器的动态范围表征为物理刺激参数的函数，特别是那些（例如皮肤位点和水合作用），其在历史上使得难以控制电触觉感受器，以及（2）将电触觉感受器的定性或主观性质（“触觉颜色”）表征为波形定时的函数。 这些结果将使我们未来的目标，开发特定的刺激控制方案和刺激参数，最大限度地提高动态范围和可控性的电触觉感受器。长期的结果将是用于医疗、工业和消费应用的上级触觉通信手段。 第二个结果将是一个初步的，但定量的描述的电触觉刺激的感知空间，这将有助于未来的研究，旨在揭示电刺激触摸的生理机制。

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.