title: Touch and Hearing Mediate Osseoperception.
abstract: Osseoperception is the sensation arising from the mechanical stimulation of a bone-anchored prosthesis. Here we show that not only touch, but also hearing is involved in this phenomenon. Using mechanical vibrations ranging from 0.1 to 6 kHz, we performed four psychophysical measures (perception threshold, sensation discrimination, frequency discrimination and reaction time) on 12 upper and lower limb amputees and found that subjects: consistently reported perceiving a sound when the stimulus was delivered at frequencies equal to or above 400 Hz; were able to discriminate frequency differences between stimuli delivered at high stimulation frequencies (~1500 Hz); improved their reaction time for bimodal stimuli (i.e. when both vibration and sound were perceived). Our results demonstrate that osseoperception is a multisensory perception, which can explain the improved environment perception of bone-anchored prosthesis users. This phenomenon might be exploited in novel prosthetic devices to enhance their control, thus ultimately improving the amputees' quality of life.
authors.affiliation: The BioRobotics Institute, Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna, Pisa, Italy.
authors.forename: Francesco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Clemente
authors.affiliation: Department of Signals and Systems, Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden.
authors.forename: Bo
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Håkansson
authors.affiliation: The BioRobotics Institute, Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna, Pisa, Italy.
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Cipriani
authors.affiliation: Institute of Neuroscience and Physiology, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden.
authors.forename: Johan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wessberg
authors.affiliation: Centre for Advanced Reconstruction of Extremities, Sahlgrenska University Hospital, Gothenburg, Sweden.
authors.forename: Katarzyna
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kulbacka-Ortiz
authors.affiliation: Centre for Advanced Reconstruction of Extremities, Sahlgrenska University Hospital, Gothenburg, Sweden.|International Center for Osseointegration Research, Education and Surgery (iCORES), Department of Orthopaedics, University of California, San Francisco, USA.
authors.forename: Rickard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Brånemark
authors.affiliation: Department of Signals and Systems, Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden.
authors.forename: Karl-Johan
authors.initials: KJ
authors.lastname: Fredén Jansson
authors.affiliation: Department of Signals and Systems, Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden.|Integrum AB, Gothenburg, Sweden.
authors.forename: Max
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ortiz-Catalan
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000674:Amputees / Q000523:psychology*; D001186:Artificial Limbs; D001307:Auditory Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D016002:Discriminant Analysis; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016348:Osseointegration; D019736:Prostheses and Implants; D011930:Reaction Time; D014110:Touch / Q000502:physiology*; D014732:Vibration