DEVELOPMENT OF THE NEXT GENERATION OF ARTIFICIAL LIMB SYSTEMS WHICH WILL ALLOW VOLUNTARY MOVEMENT AND BE CAPABLE OF PROVIDING PATIENTS WITH A HIGH DEGREE OF SOMATIC SENSATION

感觉功能我们首先阐明了微电刺激（输入到一个单一的慢适应（SA）机械感受器单位）和唤醒人类志愿者诱发的压力感觉的强度和面积之间的定性和定量关系。使用方波脉冲用钨微电极进行的电微刺激显示，诱发感觉的主观幅度似乎与频率的正功率有关;然而，电刺激的幅度基本上没有变化。接下来，我们开发了一个原型的人工手臂系统能够感知机械刺激，然后转移和显示这些刺激作为相应的躯体感觉使用相同的技术和结果，如上所述。一个机器人手系统被用作一个人工系统;它的手指上覆盖着一层压力传导橡胶。普雷苏 ...更多信息 然后将RE施加到压力传导橡胶上;微型计算机使用压力传导橡胶的输出电压来确定用于刺激感觉神经纤维的电脉冲的频率，然后将这些电脉冲通过钨微电极输出到感觉神经纤维，从而在投射区域诱发压力感觉。该系统工作在一个令人满意的方式，和受试者可以感受到压力的感觉，这是由于压力施加到压力导电橡胶的机器人手。运动功能我们试图通过刺激运动神经纤维直接与电脉冲通过钨微电极控制的手和手指的运动。然而，只有两例vie可以记录运动神经信号，并通过电刺激运动神经纤维来移动有关肌肉。我们目前正在研究提高记录信号的S/N比的方法。少

SENSORY FUNCTIONSWe firstly clarified the qualitative and quantitative relationship between the microelectrostimulation (which is input intraneurally into a single slowly-adapting (SA) mechanoreceptor unit) and the intensities and areas of the evoked pressure sensations using awake human volunteers. Electrical microstimulation performed with tungsten microelectrode using square-wave pulses revealed that the subjective magnitude of the evoked sensation was appeared to be related to a positive power of the frequency ; however, there was essentially no change in the amplitude of the electrical stimulation. Next, we developed a prototype of an artificial arm system capable of sensing mechanical stimuli and then transferring and displaying these stimuli to the subject as the corresponding somatic sensations using the same technique and the results as stated above. A robot hand system was used as an artificial system ; its finger was covered with a sheet of pressure-conductive rubber. Pressu … More re was then applied to the pressure-conductive rubber ; a microcomputer used the output voltage of the pressure-conductive rubber to determine the frequency of the electrical pulses for stimulating the sensory nerve fiber, and these electrical pulses were then output to the sensory nerve fiber via the tungsten microelectrode so that the pressure sensation was evoked at the projected area. The system worked in a satisfactory manner, and the subjects could feel the pressure sensation resulting from the pressure that was applied to the pressure conductive-rubber of the robot hand.MOTOR FUNCTIONSWe attempted to control the movement of the hand and fingers by the stimulating motor nerve fibers directly with electrical pulses via the tungsten microelectrode. However, there were only two cases in which vie could record motor nerve signals and move the concerned muscle by electrically stimulating the motor nerve fiber.We are currently investigating methods for improving the S/N ratio of the recorded signals. Less