(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2021)
Johnson, John T.; Gavetti De Mari, Daniele; Doherty, Harper; Hammond III, Frank L.; Wheaton, Lewis A.
Prosthesis disuse and abandonment is an ongoing issue in upper-limb amputation. In addition
to lost structural and motor function,
amputation also results in decreased task-specific sensory
information. One proposed remedy is augmenting somatosensory information using
vibrotactile feedback to provide tactile feedback of grasping objects. While the role of frontal
and parietal areas in motor tasks is well established, the neural and kinematic effects of this
augmented vibrotactile feedback remain in question. In this study, we sought to understand the
neurobehavioral effects of providing augmented feedback during a reach-grasp
-transport task.
Ten persons with sound limbs performed a motor task while wearing a prosthesis simulator
with and without vibrotactile feedback. We hypothesized that providing vibrotactile feedback
during prosthesis use would increase activity in frontal and parie
tal areas and improve grasp-related behavior. Results show that anticipation of upcoming vibrotactile feedback may be
encoded in motor and parietal areas during the reach-to-grasp phase of the task. While grasp
aperture is unaffected by vibrotactile feedback, the availability of vibrotactile feedback does
lead to a reduction in velocity during object transport. These results help shed light on how
engineered feedback is utilized by prostheses users and provide methodologies for further
assessment in advanced prosthetics research.