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Somatosensory signals from the controllers of an extra robotic finger support motor learning

E. Amoruso, L. Dowdall, M.T. Kollamkulam, O. Ukaegbu, P. Kieliba, T. Ng, H. Dempsey-Jones, D. Clode, T.R. Makin
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.05.18.444661
E. Amoruso
1Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, London, United Kingdom
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  • For correspondence: e.amoruso@ucl.ac.uk
L. Dowdall
1Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, London, United Kingdom
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M.T. Kollamkulam
1Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, London, United Kingdom
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O. Ukaegbu
1Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, London, United Kingdom
3East London NHS Foundation Trust, London, United Kingdom
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P. Kieliba
1Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, London, United Kingdom
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T. Ng
2Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust, London, United Kingdom
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H. Dempsey-Jones
1Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, London, United Kingdom
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D. Clode
1Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, London, United Kingdom
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T.R. Makin
1Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, London, United Kingdom
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ABSTRACT

Considerable resources are being invested to provide bidirectional control of substitutive and augmentative motor interfaces through artificial somatosensory feedback. Here, we investigated whether intrinsic somatosensory information, from body part(s) proportionally controlling an augmentation device, can be utilised to infer the device’s state and position, to better support motor control and learning. In a placebo-controlled design, we used local anaesthetic to attenuate somatosensory inputs to the big toes while participants learned to operate a toe-controlled robotic extra finger (Third Thumb) using pressure sensors. Motor learning outcomes were compared against a control group who received sham anaesthetic. The availability of somatosensory cues about the amount of exerted pressure generally facilitated acquisition, retention and transfer of motor skills, and performance under cognitive load. Motor performance was not impaired by anaesthesia when tasks involved close collaboration with the biological fingers, indicating that the brain could ‘close the gap’ of the missing pressure signals by alternative means, including feedback from other body parts involved in the motor task. Together, our findings demonstrate that there are intrinsic natural avenues to provide surrogate position information to support motor control of an artificial body part, beyond artificial extrinsic signalling.

Competing Interest Statement

The authors have declared no competing interest.

Copyright 
The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under a CC-BY 4.0 International license.
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Posted May 18, 2021.
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Somatosensory signals from the controllers of an extra robotic finger support motor learning
E. Amoruso, L. Dowdall, M.T. Kollamkulam, O. Ukaegbu, P. Kieliba, T. Ng, H. Dempsey-Jones, D. Clode, T.R. Makin
bioRxiv 2021.05.18.444661; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.05.18.444661
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Somatosensory signals from the controllers of an extra robotic finger support motor learning
E. Amoruso, L. Dowdall, M.T. Kollamkulam, O. Ukaegbu, P. Kieliba, T. Ng, H. Dempsey-Jones, D. Clode, T.R. Makin
bioRxiv 2021.05.18.444661; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.05.18.444661

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