Tactile feedback from brain-controlled bionic hands can be partially restored via intracortical microstimulation (ICMS) of the primary somatosensory cortex. In ICMS, the location of percepts depends on the electrode’s location and the percept intensity depends on the stimulation frequency and amplitude. Sensors on a bionic hand can thus be linked to somatotopically appropriate electrodes, and the contact force of each sensor can be used to determine the amplitude of a stimulus. Here we report a systematic investigation of the localization and intensity of ICMS-evoked percepts in three participants with cervical spinal cord injury. A retrospective analysis of projected fields showed that they were typically composed of a focal hotspot with diffuse borders, arrayed somatotopically in keeping with their underlying receptive fields and stable throughout the duration of the study. When testing the participants’ ability to rapidly localize a single ICMS presentation, individual electrodes typically evoked only weak sensations, making object localization and discrimination difficult. However, overlapping projected fields from multiple electrodes produced more localizable and intense sensations and allowed for a more precise use of a bionic hand.

来自脑控仿生手的触觉反馈可以通过初级体感皮层的皮层内微刺激 （ICMS） 部分恢复。在 ICMS 中，感知的位置取决于电极的位置，而感知强度取决于刺激频率和振幅。因此，仿生手上的传感器可以连接到适合体拓扑的电极，并且每个传感器的接触力可用于确定刺激的幅度。在这里，我们报告了对 3 名颈脊髓损伤参与者 ICMS 诱发感知的定位和强度的系统调查。对投影野的回顾性分析表明，它们通常由具有弥漫边界的局灶性热点组成，与其潜在的感受野一致地排列在体位上，并在整个研究期间保持稳定。在测试参与者快速定位单个 ICMS 演示的能力时，单个电极通常仅引起微弱的感觉，这使得物体定位和区分变得困难。然而，来自多个电极的重叠投影场会产生更易定位和更强烈的感觉，并允许更精确地使用仿生手。