Behavioral assessment of sensitivity to intracortical microstimulation of primate somatosensory cortex

Abstract

Electrical stimulation of sensory structures in the brain is a powerful tool to investigate neural circuits and may provide a means to restore sensation for patients for whom stimulation of the nerve is not an option. For both purposes, however, it is critical to understand how the design of the stimulation shapes the evoked sensory experience. With this in mind, we investigate the ability of monkeys to detect and discriminate trains of electrical pulses delivered to their somatosensory cortex through chronically implanted electrode arrays. We show that artificial touch is highly dependent on various features of the electrical stimuli and discuss the implications of our results for the use of electrical stimulation in neuroscience and neural engineering.

Document Details

Document Type
Pub Defense Publication
Publication Date
Oct 26, 2015
Source ID
10.1073/pnas.1509265112

Entities

People

  • Francesco V. Tenore
  • Gregg A. Tabot
  • Robert A. Gaunt
  • Sliman J. Bensmaia
  • Sungshin Kim
  • Thierri Callier

Organizations

  • Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
  • Johns Hopkins University
  • University of Chicago
  • University of Pittsburgh

Tags

Fields of Study

  • Biology

Readers

  • Neuroscience
  • Systems Analysis and Design