Department of Bioengineering, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA.
Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA.
Sci Transl Med. 2016 Oct 19;8(361):361ra141. doi: 10.1126/scitranslmed.aaf8083. Epub 2016 Oct 13.
Intracortical microstimulation of the somatosensory cortex offers the potential for creating a sensory neuroprosthesis to restore tactile sensation. Whereas animal studies have suggested that both cutaneous and proprioceptive percepts can be evoked using this approach, the perceptual quality of the stimuli cannot be measured in these experiments. We show that microstimulation within the hand area of the somatosensory cortex of a person with long-term spinal cord injury evokes tactile sensations perceived as originating from locations on the hand and that cortical stimulation sites are organized according to expected somatotopic principles. Many of these percepts exhibit naturalistic characteristics (including feelings of pressure), can be evoked at low stimulation amplitudes, and remain stable for months. Further, modulating the stimulus amplitude grades the perceptual intensity of the stimuli, suggesting that intracortical microstimulation could be used to convey information about the contact location and pressure necessary to perform dexterous hand movements associated with object manipulation.
皮层内微刺激感觉皮层为创建感觉神经假体以恢复触觉提供了可能性。虽然动物研究表明，使用这种方法可以引起皮肤和本体感觉知觉，但在这些实验中不能测量刺激的感知质量。我们表明，脊髓损伤长期患者感觉皮层手部区域的微刺激会引起触觉感知，这些触觉感知被认为来自手部的位置，并且皮质刺激部位根据预期的躯体感觉原则进行组织。这些知觉中的许多具有自然的特征（包括压力感），可以在低刺激幅度下引发，并且可以稳定数月。此外，调节刺激幅度可以使刺激的感知强度分级，这表明皮层内微刺激可用于传达有关接触位置和压力的信息，这些信息对于执行与物体操纵相关的灵巧手部运动是必要的。
