<p><strong>Short answer</strong><br>
Stimulus frequency does not matter too much for electrical neural stimulation.</p>

<p><strong>Background</strong><br>
The frequency of electrical stimulation does not need to be in the same ball park as the physiological stimulus impinging normally on a tactile skin receptor. This, because the normal route of stimulation is bypassed and the axons can be activated directly <a href="https://s3.amazonaws.com/academia.edu.documents/40255164/index.pdf?AWSAccessKeyId=AKIAIWOWYYGZ2Y53UL3A&amp;Expires=1519045881&amp;Signature=mS%2BIFLFaVy6riPwub0OPX52upZU%3D&amp;response-content-disposition=inline%3B%20filename%3DTactile_Feeling_Display_using_Functional.pdf" rel="nofollow noreferrer">(Kajimoto <em>et al</em>., 1999)</a>. In contrast, physiological tactile stimulation typically involves the deformation of a specialized dendritic region of a mechanoreceptors (Fig. 1). The effectiveness of mechanoreception depends highly on the physical properties of the dendritic sensory region in terms of responsiveness to various stimuli, including frequency selectivity, as you nicely illustrate in your answer. For electrical stimuli, all the dendritic mechaoreceptive selectivities are simply bypassed and pretty much <em>any</em> electric stimulus will do.</p>

<p>To give an example: a single jolt of direct-current electricity from a 9 Volt battery evokes a clear tactile sensation on the tongue. The <a href="https://www.wicab.com/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">BrainPort</a> device, which is a sensory substitution device that aims to provide visual function to blind patienbts, relies on electrical stimulation of the tongue to provide the user with tactile images of the field of view as recorded by a head-mounted camera. The BrainPort uses a pulse rate of 200 Hz, which clearly electrically stimulates the tongue <a href="https://courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-biology/chapter/somatosensation/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">(Danilov <em>et al</em>., 2007)</a>. Hence, whether you provide a single jolt, or a continuous pulse train of 200 Hz doesn't really matter for perception, at least as far as I know. </p>

<p><sub><strong>References</strong><br>
<strong>-</strong> <a href="https://courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-biology/chapter/somatosensation/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Danilov <em>et al</em>, <em>J Vestib Res</em> (2007); <strong>17</strong>(2-3): 119-30</a><br>
<strong>-</strong> <a href="https://s3.amazonaws.com/academia.edu.documents/40255164/index.pdf?AWSAccessKeyId=AKIAIWOWYYGZ2Y53UL3A&amp;Expires=1519045881&amp;Signature=mS%2BIFLFaVy6riPwub0OPX52upZU%3D&amp;response-content-disposition=inline%3B%20filename%3DTactile_Feeling_Display_using_Functional.pdf" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Kajimoto <em>et al</em>., <em>ICAT</em> 1999</a></sub> 
<br><br>
<a href="https://i.sstatic.net/34cTA.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/34cTA.png" alt="skinRs"></a><br>
<sup>Fig. 1. Skin receptors. source: <a href="https://courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-biology/chapter/somatosensation/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Lumen</a>.</sup></p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-02-19T12:13:55.347Z
2018-04-09T12:38:34.733Z
2018-04-09T12:38:34.733Z
AliceD
<p>I have been trying to find out what the (human) electrotactile frequency range is. Since this is a much more experimental method (and <a href="http://www.uta.fi/sis/tie/hui/schedule/HUI2013-3-tactile-applications.pdf" rel="nofollow noreferrer">more unpleasant</a>) than the traditional vibrotactile method, the research is more limited. </p>

<p><em>E.g.,</em> for vibrotatctile I could find in <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/frobt.2015.00038/full" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Sonar and Paik (2016)</a></p>

<blockquote>
  <p>The mechanoreceptors responsible for vibrotactile sensation are the rapidly adapting (RA) and Pacinian corpuscle (PC) receptors with perceptible frequencies ranging from 3 to 100 and 100 to 400 Hz, respectively (Choi and Kuchenbecker, 2013).</p>
</blockquote>

<p>Actually that seems to contain a typo or misquote of the paper they cite, which puts the PC at 10-500 Hz:</p>

<p><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/GRe4N.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/GRe4N.png" alt="enter image description here"></a></p>

<p>Anyhow, for electrotactile I could only find what some researchers have used in some of their devices, e.g. <a href="https://tcnl.bme.wisc.edu/sites/default/files/2007-Okpara-NE-BMES-4x4.pdf" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Okpara et al., 2007</a>: </p>

<blockquote>
  <p>Based on our prior unpublished work, the four levels of frequency were set at 100, 35, 15 and 10 Hz.</p>
</blockquote>

<p>That suggests a lower range perhaps of only 10-100 Hz. But is that the full range range that can be felt using electrotactile stimulation?</p>

<p>It's been suggested to me that it may be exactly the same as for vibrotactile, but a <a href="http://www.uta.fi/sis/tie/hui/schedule/HUI2013-3-tactile-applications.pdf" rel="nofollow noreferrer">set of slides</a> comparing various methods says about electrotactile:</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>Stimulate receptors and nerve endings with electric charge passing through the skin</p>
</blockquote>

<p>Since there's some suggestion it may bypass receptor (in part), perhaps the results can be different.</p>

<p><strong>What is the frequency range of electrotactile stimulation?</strong></p>

<neuroscience><perception><neurophysiology><sensation><stimulation>
What is the frequency range of electrotactile stimulation?
got trolled too much this week
# What is the frequency range of electrotactile stimulation?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2018-01-08)

I have been trying to find out what the (human) electrotactile frequency range is. Since this is a much more experimental method (and [more unpleasant](http://www.uta.fi/sis/tie/hui/schedule/HUI2013-3-tactile-applications.pdf)) than the traditional vibrotactile method, the research is more limited.

*E.g.,* for vibrotatctile I could find in [Sonar and Paik (2016)](https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/frobt.2015.00038/full)

> The mechanoreceptors responsible for vibrotactile sensation are the rapidly adapting (RA) and Pacinian corpuscle (PC) receptors with perceptible frequencies ranging from 3 to 100 and 100 to 400 Hz, respectively (Choi and Kuchenbecker, 2013).

Actually that seems to contain a typo or misquote of the paper they cite, which puts the PC at 10-500 Hz:

[![enter image description here](https://i.sstatic.net/GRe4N.png)](https://i.sstatic.net/GRe4N.png)

Anyhow, for electrotactile I could only find what some researchers have used in some of their devices, e.g. [Okpara et al., 2007](https://tcnl.bme.wisc.edu/sites/default/files/2007-Okpara-NE-BMES-4x4.pdf):

> Based on our prior unpublished work, the four levels of frequency were set at 100, 35, 15 and 10 Hz.

That suggests a lower range perhaps of only 10-100 Hz. But is that the full range range that can be felt using electrotactile stimulation?

It's been suggested to me that it may be exactly the same as for vibrotactile, but a [set of slides](http://www.uta.fi/sis/tie/hui/schedule/HUI2013-3-tactile-applications.pdf) comparing various methods says about electrotactile:

> Stimulate receptors and nerve endings with electric charge passing through the skin

Since there's some suggestion it may bypass receptor (in part), perhaps the results can be different.

**What is the frequency range of electrotactile stimulation?**

**Tags:** neuroscience, perception, neurophysiology, sensation, stimulation


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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2018-02-19. Score: 2

**Short answer**  
Stimulus frequency does not matter too much for electrical neural stimulation.

**Background**  
The frequency of electrical stimulation does not need to be in the same ball park as the physiological stimulus impinging normally on a tactile skin receptor. This, because the normal route of stimulation is bypassed and the axons can be activated directly [(Kajimoto *et al*., 1999)](https://s3.amazonaws.com/academia.edu.documents/40255164/index.pdf?AWSAccessKeyId=AKIAIWOWYYGZ2Y53UL3A&Expires=1519045881&Signature=mS%2BIFLFaVy6riPwub0OPX52upZU%3D&response-content-disposition=inline%3B%20filename%3DTactile_Feeling_Display_using_Functional.pdf). In contrast, physiological tactile stimulation typically involves the deformation of a specialized dendritic region of a mechanoreceptors (Fig. 1). The effectiveness of mechanoreception depends highly on the physical properties of the dendritic sensory region in terms of responsiveness to various stimuli, including frequency selectivity, as you nicely illustrate in your answer. For electrical stimuli, all the dendritic mechaoreceptive selectivities are simply bypassed and pretty much *any* electric stimulus will do.

To give an example: a single jolt of direct-current electricity from a 9 Volt battery evokes a clear tactile sensation on the tongue. The [BrainPort](https://www.wicab.com/) device, which is a sensory substitution device that aims to provide visual function to blind patienbts, relies on electrical stimulation of the tongue to provide the user with tactile images of the field of view as recorded by a head-mounted camera. The BrainPort uses a pulse rate of 200 Hz, which clearly electrically stimulates the tongue [(Danilov *et al*., 2007)](https://courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-biology/chapter/somatosensation/). Hence, whether you provide a single jolt, or a continuous pulse train of 200 Hz doesn't really matter for perception, at least as far as I know.

**References**  
**-** [Danilov *et al*, *J Vestib Res* (2007); **17**(2-3): 119-30](https://courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-biology/chapter/somatosensation/)  
**-** [Kajimoto *et al*., *ICAT* 1999](https://s3.amazonaws.com/academia.edu.documents/40255164/index.pdf?AWSAccessKeyId=AKIAIWOWYYGZ2Y53UL3A&Expires=1519045881&Signature=mS%2BIFLFaVy6riPwub0OPX52upZU%3D&response-content-disposition=inline%3B%20filename%3DTactile_Feeling_Display_using_Functional.pdf)
  
  
[![skinRs](https://i.sstatic.net/34cTA.png)](https://i.sstatic.net/34cTA.png)  
Fig. 1. Skin receptors. source: [Lumen](https://courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-biology/chapter/somatosensation/).


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