Intracortical microstimulation of human somatosensory cortex is sufficient to induce perceptual biases.

Time-order error, a psychophysical phenomenon in which the duration in between successive stimuli alters perception, has been studied for decades by neuroscientists and psychologists. To date, however, the locus of these effects is unknown. We use intracortical microstimulation of somatosensory cortex in humans as a tool to bypass initial stages of processing and restrict the possible locations that signals could be modified. We find that, using both amplitude discrimination and magnitude estimation paradigms, intracortical microstimulation reliably evoked time-order errors across all participants. Points of subjective equality were symmetrically shifted during amplitude discrimination experiments and the intensity of a successive stimulus was perceived as being more intense when compared to single stimulus trials in magnitude estimation experiments. The error was reduced for both paradigms at longer inter-stimulus intervals. These results show that direct activation of primary somatosensory cortex is sufficient to induce time-order errors.

Intracortical microstimulation of human somatosensory cortex induces natural perceptual biases.

Time-order error, a psychophysical phenomenon in which the duration in between successive stimuli alters perception, has been studied for decades by neuroscientists and psychologists. To date, however, the locus of these effects is unknown. We use intracortical microstimulation of somatosensory cortex in three humans with spinal cord injury as a tool to bypass initial stages of processing and restrict the possible locations that signals could be modified. Using a 2-interval forced choice amplitude discrimination paradigm, we first assessed the extent to which order effects are observed. Comparing trials where the standard stimulus was in the first or second interval, we found that systematic biases are exhibited, typically causing the intensity of the second stimulus to be overestimated The degree of this overestimation for individual electrodes was dependent on the perceptual sensitivity to changes in stimulus amplitude. To investigate the role of memory on this phenomenon, we implemented a 2-interval magnitude estimation task in which participants were instructed to ignore the first stimulus and again found that the perceptual intensity of the second stimulus tended to be enhanced by the first in a manner that depended on the amplitude and duration of the first stimulus. Finally, we repeated both paradigms while varying the inter-stimulus interval to examine the timescale over which these effects occur and found that longer inter-stimulus intervals reduced the effect size. These results show that direct activation of primary somatosensory cortex is sufficient to induce time-order errors.

A roadmap for implanting microelectrode arrays to evoke tactile sensations through intracortical microstimulation.

Intracortical microstimulation (ICMS) is a method for restoring sensation to people with paralysis as part of a bidirectional brain-computer interface to restore upper limb function. Evoking tactile sensations of the hand through ICMS requires precise targeting of implanted electrodes. Here we describe the presurgical imaging procedures used to generate functional maps of the hand area of the somatosensory cortex and subsequent planning that guided the implantation of intracortical microelectrode arrays. In five participants with cervical spinal cord injury, across two study locations, this procedure successfully enabled ICMS-evoked sensations localized to at least the first four digits of the hand. The imaging and planning procedures developed through this clinical trial provide a roadmap for other brain-computer interface studies to ensure successful placement of stimulation electrodes.

Biomimetic multi-channel microstimulation of somatosensory cortex conveys high resolution force feedback for bionic hands.

Manual interactions with objects are supported by tactile signals from the hand. This tactile feedback can be restored in brain-controlled bionic hands via intracortical microstimulation (ICMS) of somatosensory cortex (S1). In ICMS-based tactile feedback, contact force can be signaled by modulating the stimulation intensity based on the output of force sensors on the bionic hand, which in turn modulates the perceived magnitude of the sensation. In the present study, we gauged the dynamic range and precision of ICMS-based force feedback in three human participants implanted with arrays of microelectrodes in S1. To this end, we measured the increases in sensation magnitude resulting from increases in ICMS amplitude and participant's ability to distinguish between different intensity levels. We then assessed whether we could improve the fidelity of this feedback by implementing "biomimetic" ICMS-trains, designed to evoke patterns of neuronal activity that more closely mimic those in natural touch, and by delivering ICMS through multiple channels at once. We found that multi-channel biomimetic ICMS gives rise to stronger and more distinguishable sensations than does its single-channel counterpart. Finally, we implemented biomimetic multi-channel feedback in a bionic hand and had the participant perform a compliance discrimination task. We found that biomimetic multi-channel tactile feedback yielded improved discrimination over its single-channel linear counterpart. We conclude that multi-channel biomimetic ICMS conveys finely graded force feedback that more closely approximates the sensitivity conferred by natural touch.

Tessellation of artificial touch via microstimulation of human somatosensory cortex.

When we interact with objects, we rely on signals from the hand that convey information about the object and our interaction with it. A basic feature of these interactions, the locations of contacts between the hand and object, is often only available via the sense of touch. Information about locations of contact between a brain-controlled bionic hand and an object can be signaled via intracortical microstimulation (ICMS) of somatosensory cortex (S1), which evokes touch sensations that are localized to a specific patch of skin. To provide intuitive location information, tactile sensors on the robotic hand drive ICMS through electrodes that evoke sensations at skin locations matching sensor locations. This approach requires that ICMS-evoked sensations be focal, stable, and distributed over the hand. To systematically investigate the localization of ICMS-evoked sensations, we analyzed the projected fields (PFs) of ICMS-evoked sensations - their location and spatial extent - from reports obtained over multiple years from three participants implanted with microelectrode arrays in S1. First, we found that PFs vary widely in their size across electrodes, are highly stable within electrode, are distributed over large swaths of each participant's hand, and increase in size as the amplitude or frequency of ICMS increases. Second, while PF locations match the locations of the receptive fields (RFs) of the neurons near the stimulating electrode, PFs tend to be subsumed by the corresponding RFs. Third, multi-channel stimulation gives rise to a PF that reflects the conjunction of the PFs of the component channels. By stimulating through electrodes with largely overlapping PFs, then, we can evoke a sensation that is experienced primarily at the intersection of the component PFs. To assess the functional consequence of this phenomenon, we implemented multichannel ICMS-based feedback in a bionic hand and demonstrated that the resulting sensations are more localizable than are those evoked via single-channel ICMS.

Beyond Critical Period Learning: Striatal FoxP2 Affects the Active Maintenance of Learned Vocalizations in Adulthood.

In humans, mutations in the transcription factor forkhead box P2 (FOXP2) result in language disorders associated with altered striatal structure. Like speech, birdsong is learned through social interactions during maturational critical periods, and it relies on auditory feedback during initial learning and on-going maintenance. Hearing loss causes learned vocalizations to deteriorate in adult humans and songbirds. In the adult songbird brain, most FoxP2-enriched regions (e.g., cortex, thalamus) show a static expression level, but in the striatal song control nucleus, area X, FoxP2 is regulated by singing and social context: when juveniles and adults sing alone, its levels drop, and songs are more variable. When males sing to females, FoxP2 levels remain high, and songs are relatively stable: this "on-line" regulation implicates FoxP2 in ongoing vocal processes, but its role in the auditory-based maintenance of learned vocalization has not been examined. To test this, we overexpressed FoxP2 in both hearing and deafened adult zebra finches and assessed effects on song sung alone versus songs directed to females. In intact birds singing alone, no changes were detected between songs of males expressing FoxP2 or a GFP construct in area X, consistent with the marked stability of mature song in this species. In contrast, songs of males overexpressing FoxP2 became more variable and were less preferable to females, unlike responses to songs of GFP-expressing control males. In deafened birds, song deteriorated more rapidly following FoxP2 overexpression relative to GFP controls. Together, these experiments suggest that behavior-driven FoxP2 expression and auditory feedback interact to precisely maintain learned vocalizations.