A parametric study of intracortical microstimulation in behaving rats for the development of artificial sensory channels

In the framework of developing new brain-machine interfaces, many valuable results have been obtained in understanding which features of neural activity can be used in controlling an external device. Somatosensory real-time feedback is crucial for motor planning and for executing “online” errors correction during the movement. In people with sensory motor disabilities cortical microstimulation can be used as sensory feedback to elicit an artificial sensation providing the brain with information about the external environment. Even if intracortical microstimulation (ICMS) is broadly used in several experiments, understanding the psychophysics of such artificial sensory channel is still an open issue. Here we present the results of a parametric study that aims to define which stimulation parameters are needed to create an artificial sensation. Behaving rats were trained to report by pressing a lever the presence of ICMS delivered through microwire electrodes chronically implanted in the barrel cortex. Psychometric curves obtained by varying pulse amplitude, pulse frequency and train duration, demonstrate that in freely moving animals the perception threshold of microstimulation increased with respect to previous studies with head-restrained rats.