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Creating a neuroprosthesis for active tactile exploration of textures

View ORCID ProfileJoseph E. O’Doherty, View ORCID ProfileSolaiman Shokur, View ORCID ProfileLeonel E. Medina, View ORCID ProfileMikhail A. Lebedev, View ORCID ProfileMiguel A. L. Nicolelis
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/594994
Joseph E. O’Doherty
1Department of Biomedical Engineering, Duke University, Durham, NC, 27708, USA
2Neuralink Corp., San Francisco, CA, 94110, USA
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Solaiman Shokur
3STI IMT, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland
4Neurorehabilitation Laboratory, Associação Alberto Santos Dumont para Apoio à Pesquisa (AASDAP), São Paulo, Brazil, 05440-000
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Leonel E. Medina
1Department of Biomedical Engineering, Duke University, Durham, NC, 27708, USA
5Departamento de Ingeniería Informática, Universidad de Santiago de Chile, Santiago, Chile
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Mikhail A. Lebedev
6Department of Neurobiology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC, 27710, USA
7Duke Center for Neuroengineering, Duke University, Durham, NC, 27710, USA
8Center for Bioelectric Interfaces of the Institute for Cognitive Neuroscience of the National Research University Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russia
9Department of Information and Internet Technologies of Digital Health Institute, I.M. Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University, Moscow, Russia
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Miguel A. L. Nicolelis
1Department of Biomedical Engineering, Duke University, Durham, NC, 27708, USA
4Neurorehabilitation Laboratory, Associação Alberto Santos Dumont para Apoio à Pesquisa (AASDAP), São Paulo, Brazil, 05440-000
6Department of Neurobiology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC, 27710, USA
7Duke Center for Neuroengineering, Duke University, Durham, NC, 27710, USA
10Department of Neurology, Duke University, Durham, NC, 27710, USA
11Department of Neurosurgery, Duke University, Durham, NC, 27710, USA
12Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC, 27708, USA
13Edmond and Lily Safra International Institute of Neurosciences of Natal, Natal, Brazil
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  • For correspondence: nicoleli@neuro.duke.edu
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Abstract

Intracortical microstimulation (ICMS) of the primary somatosensory cortex (S1) can produce percepts that mimic somatic sensation and thus has potential as an approach to sensorize prosthetic limbs. However, it is not known whether ICMS could recreate active texture exploration—the ability to infer information about object texture by using one’s fingertips to scan a surface. Here we show that ICMS of S1 can convey information about the spatial frequencies of invisible virtual gratings through a process of active tactile exploration. Two rhesus monkeys scanned pairs of visually identical screen objects with the fingertip of a hand avatar, controlled via a joystick and later via a brain-machine interface, to find the one with denser virtual gratings. The gratings consisted of evenly spaced ridges that were signaled through ICMS pulses generated when the avatar’s fingertip crossed each ridge. The monkeys learned to interpret these ICMS patterns evoked by the interplay of their voluntary movements and the virtual textures of each object. Discrimination accuracy across a range of grating densities followed Weber’s law of just-noticeable differences (JND), a finding that matches normal cutaneous sensation. Moreover, one monkey developed an active scanning strategy where avatar velocity was integrated with the ICMS pulses to interpret the texture information. We propose that this approach could equip upper-limb neuroprostheses with direct access to texture features acquired during active exploration of natural objects.

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Posted April 04, 2019.
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Creating a neuroprosthesis for active tactile exploration of textures
Joseph E. O’Doherty, Solaiman Shokur, Leonel E. Medina, Mikhail A. Lebedev, Miguel A. L. Nicolelis
bioRxiv 594994; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/594994
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Creating a neuroprosthesis for active tactile exploration of textures
Joseph E. O’Doherty, Solaiman Shokur, Leonel E. Medina, Mikhail A. Lebedev, Miguel A. L. Nicolelis
bioRxiv 594994; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/594994

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