Vlbrotactile perception as a test for numbness and pain

Authors

  • Anthony J. Brammer Ergonomic Technology Center, Univ. of Connecticut Health Center, Farmington, CT 06030-2017, United States
  • Paivi Sutinen Dept. of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, North Karelia Central Hospital, FIN-80210 Joensuu, Finland
  • Sourish Das Statistical and Applied Mathematical Sciences Institute, Duke University, Durham, NC 27709-4006, United States
  • Ilmari Pyykko Dept. of Otorhinolaryngology, Tampere University Hospital, FIN-33521 Tampere, Finland
  • Esko Toppila Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, FIN-00250 Helsinki, Finland
  • Jukka Starck Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, FIN-00250 Helsinki, Finland

Keywords:

Contingency table, Healthy persons, Mean values, Mechanoreceptors, Perception thresholds, Vibrotactile

Abstract

A study was conducted to demonstrate a vibrotactile test to assess the presence or absence of sensory symptoms in the hands. The investigations were based on perception thresholds that mediated selectively by different types of mechanoreceptors. The test was constructed from the summed differences between the the thresholds recorded at the fingertip of an individual and the mean values of the threshold for healthy persons at the same simulation frequencies. The metric was found to be related to reports by subjects of numbness and pain using two statistical tests for evaluating the significance of associations in 2×2 contingency tables. The performance of the test was evaluated by adjusting the magnitude of the metric to serve as the boundary for the onset of symptoms by individual subjects.

Additional Files

Published

2009-09-01

How to Cite

1.
Brammer AJ, Sutinen P, Das S, Pyykko I, Toppila E, Starck J. Vlbrotactile perception as a test for numbness and pain. Canadian Acoustics [Internet]. 2009 Sep. 1 [cited 2024 Mar. 28];37(3):180-1. Available from: https://jcaa.caa-aca.ca/index.php/jcaa/article/view/2193

Issue

Section

Proceedings of the Acoustics Week in Canada

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