Studies Into Touch in Healthy Humans to Provide Sensory Feedback in Prostheses

Summary

Our sense of touch is essential to explore our environment and experience life and is based on signals from receptors in the body that are sensitive to different types of stimulation. The TACTHUM projects aims to investigate the fundamental firing of mechanoreceptors in the body to various external stimuli, with an end-aim to better understand the human somatosensory system and to apply this knowledge to provide comprehensive sensory feedback in prosthetics. We have a vast system of peripheral receptors in the skin and muscles that provide us with exquisitely detailed information about our everyday interactions. When there is injury to a body part, such as in amputation, there is a significant loss of somatosensory input. Prosthetic devices have greatly developmed in the past few years, especially with the introduction of useful sensory feedback. However, there is a lot to discover both about the workings of the somatosensory system and how to recreate this to give feedback in a prosthetic device.

The main objective of the TACTHUM project is to understand how to recover and apply useful somatosensory feedback in prostheses for amputees. There are a number of other sub-objectives, to:

1. Determine how tactile mechanoreceptors encode the texture of natural surfaces during passive and active exploration.
2. Investigate how our sense of touch varies with emotional state.
3. Explore what happens to our sense of touch when we explore surfaces at different temperatures.
4. Understand the origin of our perception of humidity.
5. Investigate differences in the encoding of tactile information with age.
6. Determine the perceptions generated by the stimulation of single tactile afferents.
7. Study changes in spontaneous activity and responses to tactile stimulation on the residual limb of amputees.

To accomplish these objectives, we will primarily use the technique of microneurography, in vivo recordings from peripheral nerves, to gain direct information about the firing of peripheral neurons in humans. In conjunction with this, we will use a variety of mechanical and thermal stimuli to excite somatosensory fibers and register the activity of other physiological and perceptual measures. This will allow us to gain a fuller understanding of how the incoming somatosensory signals are interpreted and processed. Overall, we aim to explore how more naturalistic tactile interactions are encoded and how these can be translated to provide realistic prosthetic feedback.

Conditions

• Somatosensory Disorders
• Amputation
• Tactile Disorders
• Aging
• Prosthesis User

Interventions

DEVICE

Different surfaces to be touched

The participant will touch various different surfaces and textures, including ones of different temperature and including solids and liquids.

BEHAVIORAL

Emotional state change

The emotional state of the participant will be modulated by listening to music.

DEVICE

Electrical stimulation

The participant will receive electrical stimulation of single nerve fibers (a few microamps) to artificially excite an individual afferent.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Institut National de la Santé Et de la Recherche Médicale, France

  lead OTHER_GOV

Principal Investigators

• Maya Elzeiere, MD · CNRS - Aix-Marseille University

• Rochelle Ackerley, PhD · CNRS - Aix-Marseille University

Study Design

Allocation

NON_RANDOMIZED

Purpose

BASIC_SCIENCE

Masking

SINGLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

20 Years

Max Age

70 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2024-04-15

Primary Completion

2034-10-02

Completion

2034-11-02

Countries

• France

Study Locations