Assimilation of virtual legs and perception of floor texture by complete paraplegic patients receiving artificial tactile feedback

This study explores a novel approach to restore lower limb sensory feedback in paraplegic patients by remapping tactile sensations from their legs and feet onto their forearms. A portable haptic display, integrated with virtual reality, simulates walking on different surfaces. The haptic display creates realistic illusions of walking on surfaces like sand, pavement, and grass for most patients. They also experienced movements of the virtual legs, and could even report the position of the avatar leg during virtual walking based solely on tactile feedback. The study found that patients assimilated the virtual lower limbs as their own, suggesting the potential of adding tactile feedback to neuroprosthetic devices. This could improve prosthetic acceptance and motor proficiency for spinal cord injury patients.

• 1
  SCI patients could perceive the position of a virtual leg during locomotion using tactile feedback on their forearms.
• 2
  Patients incorporated the avatar legs as an extension of their body schema through visuo-tactile stimulation.
• 3
  SCI patients experienced a realistic sensation of walking on different ground surfaces by relying on tactile feedback alone.