Testing silicone digit extensions as a way to suppress natural sensation to evaluate supplementary tactile feedback.

Dexterous use of the hands depends critically on sensory feedback, so it is generally agreed that functional supplementary feedback would greatly improve the use of hand prostheses. Much research still focuses on improving non-invasive feedback that could potentially become available to all prosthes...

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Autores principales:	Leonard F Engels, Leonardo Cappello, Anke Fischer, Christian Cipriani
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2021
Materias:	Medicine R Science Q
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/dfbcf865f38b4e6784ef2b36a0d0387e
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:dfbcf865f38b4e6784ef2b36a0d0387e2021-12-02T20:08:42ZTesting silicone digit extensions as a way to suppress natural sensation to evaluate supplementary tactile feedback.1932-620310.1371/journal.pone.0256753https://doaj.org/article/dfbcf865f38b4e6784ef2b36a0d0387e2021-01-01T00:00:00Zhttps://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0256753https://doaj.org/toc/1932-6203Dexterous use of the hands depends critically on sensory feedback, so it is generally agreed that functional supplementary feedback would greatly improve the use of hand prostheses. Much research still focuses on improving non-invasive feedback that could potentially become available to all prosthesis users. However, few studies on supplementary tactile feedback for hand prostheses demonstrated a functional benefit. We suggest that confounding factors impede accurate assessment of feedback, e.g., testing non-amputee participants that inevitably focus intently on learning EMG control, the EMG's susceptibility to noise and delays, and the limited dexterity of hand prostheses. In an attempt to assess the effect of feedback free from these constraints, we used silicone digit extensions to suppress natural tactile feedback from the fingertips and thus used the tactile feedback-deprived human hand as an approximation of an ideal feed-forward tool. Our non-amputee participants wore the extensions and performed a simple pick-and-lift task with known weight, followed by a more difficult pick-and-lift task with changing weight. They then repeated these tasks with one of three kinds of audio feedback. The tests were repeated over three days. We also conducted a similar experiment on a person with severe sensory neuropathy to test the feedback without the extensions. Furthermore, we used a questionnaire based on the NASA Task Load Index to gauge the subjective experience. Unexpectedly, we did not find any meaningful differences between the feedback groups, neither in the objective nor the subjective measurements. It is possible that the digit extensions did not fully suppress sensation, but since the participant with impaired sensation also did not improve with the supplementary feedback, we conclude that the feedback failed to provide relevant grasping information in our experiments. The study highlights the complex interaction between task, feedback variable, feedback delivery, and control, which seemingly rendered even rich, high-bandwidth acoustic feedback redundant, despite substantial sensory impairment.Leonard F EngelsLeonardo CappelloAnke FischerChristian CiprianiPublic Library of Science (PLoS)articleMedicineRScienceQENPLoS ONE, Vol 16, Iss 9, p e0256753 (2021)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Medicine R Science Q
spellingShingle	Medicine R Science Q Leonard F Engels Leonardo Cappello Anke Fischer Christian Cipriani Testing silicone digit extensions as a way to suppress natural sensation to evaluate supplementary tactile feedback.
description	Dexterous use of the hands depends critically on sensory feedback, so it is generally agreed that functional supplementary feedback would greatly improve the use of hand prostheses. Much research still focuses on improving non-invasive feedback that could potentially become available to all prosthesis users. However, few studies on supplementary tactile feedback for hand prostheses demonstrated a functional benefit. We suggest that confounding factors impede accurate assessment of feedback, e.g., testing non-amputee participants that inevitably focus intently on learning EMG control, the EMG's susceptibility to noise and delays, and the limited dexterity of hand prostheses. In an attempt to assess the effect of feedback free from these constraints, we used silicone digit extensions to suppress natural tactile feedback from the fingertips and thus used the tactile feedback-deprived human hand as an approximation of an ideal feed-forward tool. Our non-amputee participants wore the extensions and performed a simple pick-and-lift task with known weight, followed by a more difficult pick-and-lift task with changing weight. They then repeated these tasks with one of three kinds of audio feedback. The tests were repeated over three days. We also conducted a similar experiment on a person with severe sensory neuropathy to test the feedback without the extensions. Furthermore, we used a questionnaire based on the NASA Task Load Index to gauge the subjective experience. Unexpectedly, we did not find any meaningful differences between the feedback groups, neither in the objective nor the subjective measurements. It is possible that the digit extensions did not fully suppress sensation, but since the participant with impaired sensation also did not improve with the supplementary feedback, we conclude that the feedback failed to provide relevant grasping information in our experiments. The study highlights the complex interaction between task, feedback variable, feedback delivery, and control, which seemingly rendered even rich, high-bandwidth acoustic feedback redundant, despite substantial sensory impairment.
format	article
author	Leonard F Engels Leonardo Cappello Anke Fischer Christian Cipriani
author_facet	Leonard F Engels Leonardo Cappello Anke Fischer Christian Cipriani
author_sort	Leonard F Engels
title	Testing silicone digit extensions as a way to suppress natural sensation to evaluate supplementary tactile feedback.
title_short	Testing silicone digit extensions as a way to suppress natural sensation to evaluate supplementary tactile feedback.
title_full	Testing silicone digit extensions as a way to suppress natural sensation to evaluate supplementary tactile feedback.
title_fullStr	Testing silicone digit extensions as a way to suppress natural sensation to evaluate supplementary tactile feedback.
title_full_unstemmed	Testing silicone digit extensions as a way to suppress natural sensation to evaluate supplementary tactile feedback.
title_sort	testing silicone digit extensions as a way to suppress natural sensation to evaluate supplementary tactile feedback.
publisher	Public Library of Science (PLoS)
publishDate	2021
url	https://doaj.org/article/dfbcf865f38b4e6784ef2b36a0d0387e
work_keys_str_mv	AT leonardfengels testingsiliconedigitextensionsasawaytosuppressnaturalsensationtoevaluatesupplementarytactilefeedback AT leonardocappello testingsiliconedigitextensionsasawaytosuppressnaturalsensationtoevaluatesupplementarytactilefeedback AT ankefischer testingsiliconedigitextensionsasawaytosuppressnaturalsensationtoevaluatesupplementarytactilefeedback AT christiancipriani testingsiliconedigitextensionsasawaytosuppressnaturalsensationtoevaluatesupplementarytactilefeedback
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Testing silicone digit extensions as a way to suppress natural sensation to evaluate supplementary tactile feedback.

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