Perception of microstimulation frequency in human somatosensory cortex

Microstimulation in the somatosensory cortex can evoke artificial tactile percepts and can be incorporated into bidirectional brain–computer interfaces (BCIs) to restore function after injury or disease. However, little is known about how stimulation parameters themselves affect perception. Here, we...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:eLife 2021-07, Vol.10
Main Authors: Hughes, Christopher L, Flesher, Sharlene N, Weiss, Jeffrey M, Boninger, Michael, Collinger, Jennifer L, Gaunt, Robert A
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
brain-computer interfaces
Electrodes
Interfaces
intracortical microstimulation
Neuroscience
Recovery of function
sensory feedback
Sensory perception
Somatosensory cortex
Spinal cord injuries
Tactile perception
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Summary:Microstimulation in the somatosensory cortex can evoke artificial tactile percepts and can be incorporated into bidirectional brain–computer interfaces (BCIs) to restore function after injury or disease. However, little is known about how stimulation parameters themselves affect perception. Here, we stimulated through microelectrode arrays implanted in the somatosensory cortex of two human participants with cervical spinal cord injury and varied the stimulus amplitude, frequency, and train duration. Increasing the amplitude and train duration increased the perceived intensity on all tested electrodes. Surprisingly, we found that increasing the frequency evoked more intense percepts on some electrodes but evoked less-intense percepts on other electrodes. These different frequency–intensity relationships were divided into three groups, which also evoked distinct percept qualities at different stimulus frequencies. Neighboring electrode sites were more likely to belong to the same group. These results support the idea that stimulation frequency directly controls tactile perception and that these different percepts may be related to the organization of somatosensory cortex, which will facilitate principled development of stimulation strategies for bidirectional BCIs.
ISSN:2050-084X
2050-084X
DOI:10.7554/eLife.65128