Novel MRI-compatible tactile stimulator for cortical mapping of foot sole pressure stimuli with fMRI.

Magn Reson Med. 2012 Jun 7;

Authors: Hao Y, Manor B, Liu J, Zhang K, Chai Y, Lipsitz L, Peng CK, Novak V, Wang X, Zhang J, Fang J

Abstract
Foot sole somatosensory feedback is critical to motor control and declines with aging and disease. To enable study of cortical networks underlying foot sole somatosensation, we developed a pneumatic tactile stimulator capable of producing one degree-of-freedom (DOF) oscillations with preset waveform, frequency (≤10 Hz), force magnitude (5-500 N), duty cycle (20-100%), and contacted surface area over which pressures are applied to the foot sole. Image tests (anatomical/functional/field map) of a phantom demonstrated that the device is compatible with 3 T MRI. Gradient-recalled echo-planar images of seven healthy young adults using a typical block-designed 1 Hz sinusoidal stimulation protocol revealed significant activation contralaterally within the primary somatosensory cortex and paracentral gyrus, and bilaterally within the secondary somatosensory cortex. The stimulation system may therefore serve as a research tool to study functional brain networks involved in the perception and modulation of foot sole somatosensation and its relationship to motor control. Magn Reson Med, 2012. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

PMID: 22678849 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]