Perceptual responses to microstimulation frequency are spatially organized in human somatosensory cortex

Abstract

Microstimulation in the somatosensory cortex can evoke artificial tactile percepts and can be incorporated into bidirectional brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) to restore function after injury or disease. However, little is known about how stimulation parameters themselves affect perception. Here, we stimulated through microelectrode arrays implanted in the somatosensory cortex of a human participant with a cervical spinal cord injury and varied the stimulus amplitude, duration, and frequency. Increasing the amplitude and duration increased the perceived intensity on all tested electrodes. Surprisingly, we found that increasing the frequency evoked more intense percepts on some electrodes but evoked less intense percepts on most electrodes. Electrodes divided into three groups which evoked distinct perceptual qualities that depended on the stimulus frequency and were spatially organized in cortex. These results contribute to our growing understanding of the structure and function of the somatosensory cortex and will facilitate principled development of stimulation strategies for bidirectional BCIs.