Effect of Electrical Stimulation on Vibration-induced Kinesthetic Illusion Analyzed via Statistical Models

Abstract

The vibration-induced kinesthetic illusion has been studied in the fields of rehabilitation and virtual reality to induce the sense of movement in humans. Although the kinesthetic illusion induces an illusory sense of movement in a human, there is a problem in that the occurrence rate of the kinesthetic illusion varies from person to person. Hence, it is necessary to develop a method to increase the occurrence rate of the kinesthetic illusion. In this study, we increased the occurrence rate of the kinesthetic illusion by combining vibration and electrical stimulation. Vibration stimulation was applied to antagonist muscles to generate the kinesthetic illusion, and electrical stimulation was applied to agonist muscles to induce the isometric contraction of a muscle. To investigate the effect of the combined method of vibration and electrical stimulation, we conducted experiments under four conditions. The first condition involved the application of vibration stimulation only, whereas the second, third, and fourth conditions involved the application of vibration and low-, middle-, and high-voltage electrical stimulation. The experimental results were analyzed using statistical models. The statistical analysis suggests that the effect of electrical stimulation on the occurrence rate of the illusion was statistically significant.