Raghuvanshi Ankita, Pallavi Priya, Chhatlani Rahul, Parmar Jayesh, Rana Manish, Betai Sagar, Lahiri Uttama
Discipline of Electrical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar, Gandhinagar, India.
Faculty of Physiotherapy, Marwadi University, Rajkot, India.
Biomed Eng Online. 2025 Feb 20;24(1):21. doi: 10.1186/s12938-024-01326-9.
Vibrotactile input is a useful sensory cue for individuals with Parkinson's Disease (PD) to overcome freezing of gait (FoG). For this input to serve as a cue, its accurate perception is required. This needs the input to be delivered at an anatomical location where it can be perceived. This is particularly true for individuals with PD whose tactile perception differs from that of healthy individuals. Literature indicates choice of various anatomical locations e.g., Finger, Wrist, Thigh, Shin, Calf, Ankle, Achilles Tendon, Heel and torso for the application of vibrotactile stimulation. Though studies have focused on the comparison of the vibrotactile perception (based on feedback) at various anatomical locations, yet these have involved only healthy individuals. However, such exploration remains as majorly untouched for individuals with PD.
To bridge this gap, here we have conducted a study using our vibrotactile stimulation system while involving twenty-one individuals with PD to understand the choice of anatomical location with regard to vibrotactile perception. In addition, our study involved twenty-one age-matched healthy individuals to understand possible differences if any in vibrotactile perception between the two groups of participants.
Our results showed that for the healthy participants, both 'Wrist' and 'Thigh' were equally strong anatomical locations with regard to vibrotactile perception that were correctly identified 100% of the time closely followed by 'Finger' for which the correct identification was 98% of the time with correct identification for all these three locations being statistically (p < 0.05) higher than the other locations. In contrast, for individuals with PD, the 'Thigh' emerged as a strong candidate anatomical location with regard to vibrotactile perception even for those with severity of symptoms (based on clinical measure) that was correctly identified 96% of the time followed by 'Wrist' for which the correct identification was 92% of the time with the correct identification for only the 'Thigh' being statistically (p < 0.05) higher than all the other locations (except 'Wrist').
This finding is clinically significant in deciding the right anatomical location to offer vibrotactile cues for it to be correctly perceived by one with PD, providing assistance to overcome FoG.
振动触觉输入对于帕金森病（PD）患者克服冻结步态（FoG）是一种有用的感觉线索。要使这种输入作为线索，就需要准确感知它。这要求在能够被感知的解剖位置进行输入传递。对于触觉感知与健康个体不同的PD患者来说尤其如此。文献表明可选择各种解剖位置，如手指、手腕、大腿、小腿、小腿肚、脚踝、跟腱、足跟和躯干来施加振动触觉刺激。尽管研究聚焦于比较不同解剖位置的振动触觉感知（基于反馈），但这些研究仅涉及健康个体。然而，对于PD患者，此类探索在很大程度上仍未涉及。
为弥补这一差距，我们在此进行了一项研究，使用我们的振动触觉刺激系统，纳入21名PD患者，以了解关于振动触觉感知的解剖位置选择。此外，我们的研究纳入了21名年龄匹配的健康个体，以了解两组参与者在振动触觉感知方面是否存在可能的差异。
我们的结果表明，对于健康参与者，“手腕”和“大腿”在振动触觉感知方面是同等强烈的解剖位置，正确识别率均为100%，紧随其后的是“手指”，正确识别率为98%，这三个位置的正确识别率在统计学上（p < 0.05）高于其他位置。相比之下，对于PD患者，“大腿”成为振动触觉感知方面的一个强有力的候选解剖位置，即使对于症状严重程度较高（基于临床测量）的患者，正确识别率为96%，其次是“手腕”，正确识别率为92%，只有“大腿”的正确识别率在统计学上（p < 0.05）高于所有其他位置（除“手腕”外）。
这一发现对于确定为PD患者提供能被正确感知的振动触觉线索的合适解剖位置具有临床意义，有助于克服冻结步态。
