McConnell Brain Imaging Centre, Montréal Neurological Institute, 3801 University St., Montréal, Canada H3A 2B4.
J Neurosci Methods. 2009 Oct 30;184(1):129-35. doi: 10.1016/j.jneumeth.2009.07.018. Epub 2009 Jul 23.
Vibrotactile stimulation has been used successfully to activate the human somatosensory pathway in functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) experiments. The design and characterization of these devices are of particular interest in frequency discrimination tasks and investigations of the somatopic organization of sensory areas. However, few have investigated the utility of vibrotactile stimulation in a clinical context. We have previously demonstrated that vibrotactile stimulation can provide robust activations in areas targeted in stereotactic functional neurosurgical procedures used for tumour resection (i.e.: primary and secondary somatosensory areas) and subcortical targets for thalamic pain and movement disorders (i.e.: sensory thalamus). The main contribution of this manuscript is the presentation of the design, materials, construction, and validation of a novel vibrotactile stimulator intended for clinical use. The thalamic activations are also compared to a digital atlas in order to evaluate anatomical localization. The proposed stimulator was constructed entirely from non-ferromagnetic parts, uses compressed air to deliver stimulation using computer control, and stimulates the entirety of the hand and fingers to ensure robust somatosensory activations. In addition, this stimulator is constructed entirely from "off-the-shelf" parts and would be easily replicated due to the simplicity of design and the relatively small expense of the parts required. The device was tested by stimulating the right hand of 10 normal controls (5 females, 5 males, all right handed; age range: 25-42 years, mean: 30.9 years, standard deviation: 5.2 years) during an fMRI experiment. The results demonstrate significant single subject activations of primary and secondary somatosensory cortices and of the sensory thalamus.
振动触觉刺激已成功应用于功能磁共振成像 (fMRI) 实验中激活人体体感通路。这些设备的设计和特性在频率辨别任务和感觉区域体素组织研究中特别感兴趣。然而，很少有研究调查振动触觉刺激在临床环境中的应用。我们之前已经证明，振动触觉刺激可以在立体定向功能神经外科手术中靶向的区域（即：初级和次级体感区）和丘脑疼痛和运动障碍的皮质下靶点（即：感觉丘脑）中提供强大的激活。本文的主要贡献是展示一种新型振动触觉刺激器的设计、材料、构建和验证，旨在用于临床。还将丘脑激活与数字图谱进行比较，以评估解剖定位。所提出的刺激器完全由非铁磁部件构成，使用压缩空气通过计算机控制进行刺激，并刺激整个手部和手指以确保强大的体感激活。此外，由于设计简单且所需部件的相对费用较低，该刺激器完全由“现成”部件构建而成，易于复制。该设备通过在 fMRI 实验中刺激 10 名正常对照者（5 名女性，5 名男性，均为右利手；年龄范围：25-42 岁，平均值：30.9 岁，标准差：5.2 岁）来进行测试。结果表明，初级和次级体感皮层以及感觉丘脑存在明显的单一受试者激活。
