Effect of Electrotactile Stimulation on Local Peripheral Hemodynamics

Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) has emerged as a promising, non-invasive sensory feedback approach in neurorehabilitation. However, its modulatory effect on local peripheral hemodynamics has been seldomly investigated by far. This study aims at exploring how the electrotactile stimulation on fingertip affect the participant's local blood perfusion volume (BPV). 14 healthy volunteers participated in the experiment. The results showed a decrease of peripheral BPV regardless of the tactile sensations types, which were elicited by regulating the pulse frequencies (PF) and pulse amplitudes (PA) concurrently. In terms of four time-domain BPV features, significantly stronger temporal BPV response occurred when increasing either PF or PA (p-value<0.05). And the PA demonstrated more pronounced effect on the BPV response compared to the PF and the interaction effect of PF and PA. This study may facilitate researcher to better understand peripheral microvascular function related to sensory-motor pathways, and offer fundamental basis for the application of TENS in neurorehabilitation.Clinical Relevance- This study may shed valuable insights into how the sensory-level TENS modulates local peripheral blood perfusion, which provides fundamental basis for the application of TENS in neurorehabilitation.