Graham S J, Staines W R, Nelson A, Plewes D B, McIlroy W E
Sunnybrook and Women's College Health Sciences Centre, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Magn Reson Med. 2001 Sep;46(3):436-42. doi: 10.1002/mrm.1211.
A new class of devices are described for improving investigation of somatosensory neuronal activation using fMRI. Dubbed magnetomechanical vibrotactile devices (MVDs), the principle of operation involves driving wire coils with small oscillatory currents in the large static magnetic field inherent to MRI scanners. The resulting Lorentz forces can be oriented to generate large vibrations that are easily converted to translational motions as large as several centimeters. Representative data demonstrate the flexibility of MVDs to generate different well-controlled vibratory and tactile stimuli to activate special proprioceptive and cutaneous somatosensory afferent pathways. The implications of these data are discussed with respect to the literature on existing devices for producing sensorimotor activation, as well as expanding the scope of current fMRI investigations.
描述了一类新型设备，用于改善使用功能磁共振成像（fMRI）对体感神经元激活的研究。这类设备被称为磁机械振动触觉设备（MVDs），其工作原理是在MRI扫描仪固有的大静态磁场中，用小振荡电流驱动线圈。由此产生的洛伦兹力可以定向产生大振动，这些大振动很容易转换为几厘米的平移运动。代表性数据表明，MVDs能够灵活地产生不同的、可控的振动和触觉刺激，以激活特殊的本体感觉和皮肤体感传入通路。结合关于现有产生感觉运动激活的设备的文献，以及扩大当前fMRI研究范围，对这些数据的意义进行了讨论。
