Autonomic nervous system response to vibrating and electrical stimuli on the forearm and wrist

In today's operating rooms, anesthesiologists use physiological data monitoring systems with visual and auditory cues to receive patient information. The efficacy of these visual-audio systems is limited by the human limitations of these modalities. Previous studies have shown the potential use of a complementary, or alternate, patient data monitoring technology utilizing another psychophysically relevant modality: the sense of touch via vibro-tactile or electro-tactile stimulation. In this paper, we describe an experiment designed to determine whether the specific type and/or location of such a tactile stimulation device on the arm affects the autonomic nervous system response. In our study, each of 10 participants tested a vibro-tactile display on the forearm (VF), a vibro-tactile display on the wrist (VW), and an electro-tactile display on the forearm (EF) in random order. Using the LifeShirt, system, electrocardiogram (ECG), respiratory rate (Br), tidal volume (Vt) data were collected. Results showed a higher value of the heart rate and heart rate variability (HRV) when using the VF compared to the VW and EF. We also found that the HRV response for the three tactile prototypes was correlated with the accuracy of tactile pattern identification.