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A Mechanical Stimulation Glove to Induce Hebbian Plasticity at the Fingertip

Repetitive sensory stimulation of the fingertip induces Hebbian plasticity in the sensorimotor cortex that benefits the tactile and motor behavior of the hand in healthy younger adults, older adults, and patients. To use this method outside the laboratory, robust and portable stimulation systems are...

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Autores principales: Timm, Fabian, Kuehn, Esther
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7263020/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32528264
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2020.00177
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author Timm, Fabian
Kuehn, Esther
author_facet Timm, Fabian
Kuehn, Esther
author_sort Timm, Fabian
collection PubMed
description Repetitive sensory stimulation of the fingertip induces Hebbian plasticity in the sensorimotor cortex that benefits the tactile and motor behavior of the hand in healthy younger adults, older adults, and patients. To use this method outside the laboratory, robust and portable stimulation systems are needed that allow prolonged stimulation phases over several hours without compromising on signal intensity or personal mobility. Here, we introduce two stimulation gloves that apply finger- and frequency-specific mechanical stimulation to individual fingertips over prolonged periods. The stimulators are built into commercially available cotton gloves and apply stimulation either via loudspeaker membranes or via linear resonant actuators (LRAs). We tested the efficiency of both gloves to induce Hebbian plasticity in younger adults by using two established measures of tactile performance, the grating orientation task (GOT), and the two-point discrimination task (2PDT). Both tests were performed before and after 3 h of sensory finger stimulation using one of either glove system. As a control condition, a non-stimulated finger was tested in both tasks before and after stimulation. The results show no significant effect of sensory stimulation on GOT thresholds, but a significant decrease in the 2PDT thresholds after compared to before the training at the stimulated finger only. The loudspeaker membrane improved performance in the 2PDT in 10/16 participants, whereas the LRA improved performance in the 2PDT in 13/16 participants. Stimulation gloves with built-in modules may be used in future larger-scale cohort studies on sensorimotor plasticity, rehabilitation, and learning.
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spelling pubmed-72630202020-06-10 A Mechanical Stimulation Glove to Induce Hebbian Plasticity at the Fingertip Timm, Fabian Kuehn, Esther Front Hum Neurosci Human Neuroscience Repetitive sensory stimulation of the fingertip induces Hebbian plasticity in the sensorimotor cortex that benefits the tactile and motor behavior of the hand in healthy younger adults, older adults, and patients. To use this method outside the laboratory, robust and portable stimulation systems are needed that allow prolonged stimulation phases over several hours without compromising on signal intensity or personal mobility. Here, we introduce two stimulation gloves that apply finger- and frequency-specific mechanical stimulation to individual fingertips over prolonged periods. The stimulators are built into commercially available cotton gloves and apply stimulation either via loudspeaker membranes or via linear resonant actuators (LRAs). We tested the efficiency of both gloves to induce Hebbian plasticity in younger adults by using two established measures of tactile performance, the grating orientation task (GOT), and the two-point discrimination task (2PDT). Both tests were performed before and after 3 h of sensory finger stimulation using one of either glove system. As a control condition, a non-stimulated finger was tested in both tasks before and after stimulation. The results show no significant effect of sensory stimulation on GOT thresholds, but a significant decrease in the 2PDT thresholds after compared to before the training at the stimulated finger only. The loudspeaker membrane improved performance in the 2PDT in 10/16 participants, whereas the LRA improved performance in the 2PDT in 13/16 participants. Stimulation gloves with built-in modules may be used in future larger-scale cohort studies on sensorimotor plasticity, rehabilitation, and learning. Frontiers Media S.A. 2020-05-25 /pmc/articles/PMC7263020/ /pubmed/32528264 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2020.00177 Text en Copyright © 2020 Timm and Kuehn. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Human Neuroscience
Timm, Fabian
Kuehn, Esther
A Mechanical Stimulation Glove to Induce Hebbian Plasticity at the Fingertip
title A Mechanical Stimulation Glove to Induce Hebbian Plasticity at the Fingertip
title_full A Mechanical Stimulation Glove to Induce Hebbian Plasticity at the Fingertip
title_fullStr A Mechanical Stimulation Glove to Induce Hebbian Plasticity at the Fingertip
title_full_unstemmed A Mechanical Stimulation Glove to Induce Hebbian Plasticity at the Fingertip
title_short A Mechanical Stimulation Glove to Induce Hebbian Plasticity at the Fingertip
title_sort mechanical stimulation glove to induce hebbian plasticity at the fingertip
topic Human Neuroscience
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7263020/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32528264
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2020.00177
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