A vector stimulator for neurophysiological studies of periodontal mechanosensitive units

This paper describes a newly designed vector stimulator which can independently stimulate both sides of an animal's canine or incisor teeth to analyse the functional properties of periodontal mechanosensitive (PM) units. The stimulator was designed so as to control and stimulus direction (0 degree-360 degrees) and intensity (0-0.98 N) within the horizontal plane (vector), the rate of application (0.049-490 N/s), and the duration (0-10 s). The stimulator is composed of electromagnetic drivers, a trapezoid-wave generator, and a stimulus monitor. The former is adopted from conventional pen drivers, and the latter two are composed of operational amplifier circuits. The vector stimulator was utilized to apply a stimulus force to the canine teeth of a cat, and the responses of the PM units were recorded in the somatosensory cerebral cortex.