DOI: 10.5061/dryad.5hqbzkhdx
title: Simultaneous modulation of pulse charge and burst period elicits two differentiable referred sensations

description: Objective. To investigate the feasibility of delivering multidimensional
 feedback using a single channel of peripheral nerve stimulation by
 complementing percepts of intensity with percepts of flutter frequency
 controlled by burst period modulation. Approach. Two dimensions
 of a distally referred sensation were provided simultaneously: intensity
 was conveyed by the modulation of the pulse charge rate inside short
 discrete periods of stimulation referred to as bursts, and frequency was
 conveyed by the modulation of the period between bursts. For this approach
 to be feasible, intensity percepts must be perceived independently of
 frequency percepts. Two experiments investigated these interactions. A
 series of two alternative forced choice tasks (2AFC) were used to
 investigate burst period modulation's role in intensity
 discernibility. Magnitude estimation tasks were used to determine any
 interactions in the gradation between these frequency and intensity
 percepts. Main Results. The 2AFC revealed that burst periods can
 be individually differentiated as a gradable frequency percept in
 peripheral nerve stimulation. Participants could correctly rate a
 perceptual scale of intensity and frequency regardless of the value of the
 second, but the dependence of frequency differentiability on charge rate
 indicates that frequency was harder to detect with weaker intensity
 percepts. The same was not observed in intensity differentiability as the
 length of burst periods did not significantly alter intensity
 differentiation. These results suggest that multidimensional encoding is a
 promising approach for increasing information throughput in sensory
 feedback systems as long as intensity ranges are selected properly.
 Significance. This study provides valuable insights into haptic
 feedback through the peripheral nervous system and demonstrates an
 encoding approach that may offer enhanced information transfer for use in
 virtual reality applications and in sensory-enabled prosthetic systems.
 The feasibility of the multidimensional encoding approach in performing
 control tasks opens new avenues for developing enriched sensory feedback
 systems.
description: # Simultaneous Modulation of Pulse Charge and Burst Period Elicits Two
 Differentiable Referred Sensations Data
 [https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.5hqbzkhdx](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.5hqbzkhdx) ## Description of the data and file structure Summarized data divided by the task performed is included as individual CSV files. CSV files including JND contain the data used to assess the 2AFC tasks: * .csv file with "Summary" in the filename include data from each individual trial used across all test conditions  * "BG Summary Only" only contains data from trials where the burst gap was the independent variable.  * " JND_BG and JND ACR, contain the webers rations for all trials where the burst gap or the charge rate where the independent variables. These JND files contain many shared headers including:   * PA_Ref, PW*Ref, *PF Ref ACR Ref, BG Ref, and BD Ref-respectively refer to the Pulse Amplitude (µA) , Pulse Duration (µs), Pulse Frequency (Hz), Charge rate(Q per second) , Burst Gap (ms) and Burst Duration (ms) used to form the reference stimulation train  * The same parameters marked "_Test" Indicate the parameters used in the test or comparator stimulation train * Sex - 0 indicated male, 1 indicated female * Age- 1 indicated &lt; 30, 0 indicated above 30 years of age. * Hand-indicates participant handedness with 0 indicating left handed and 1 indicating right handed  * ACR relative and BG relative- indicate the relative difference between the test and reference stimulation trains. * Correct response(%)- indicates the total number of times correctly that specific difference was correctly chosen. * Webers ratio (unitless) - indicate the calculated Weber's ratio for the specific task CSV files including MAG_EST contain the data used to assess the magnitude estimation task Summary .csv files were created for trials where participants rated intensity (MAG EST ACR) and where participants rated the burst period (MAG_EST BP) * Headers in these files include: * Group (unitless) - Indicates the relative magnitude of either intensity or BP * names- Indicates the specific iteration of magnitude estimation trial assessed * y (unitless) - The standardized value given by the participant For plotting the individual iteration of the magnitude estimation task, the longer titled MAG_EST.CSV files were used.  these contain the headers : * x- Which corresponds to Groups in the summary .csv. * mean- The standardized mean value of all participants data at a given x value . * min - The bottom edge of the range of responses at a given x. * max- The top edge of the range of responses at a given x. # Code/Software Analysis of the data sets was performed using R The AIM*_*1 Analysis code.R Includes rough visualization and was used to perform the statistical tests.  To use, simply download the .CSV files and ensure that the paths are correct in AIM*_*1 Analysis code.R Comments in the analysis code will help to guide you to the specific Statistic of interest