A study of optimum stimulus condition for inducing kinesthetic illusion

Kinesthetic illusion (KI) is a phenomenon that is caused by providing some vibration to a tendon through the skin to make a person perceive a joint moving without actual movement. Because we want to achieve a simple, inexpensive, and small rehabilitation system using KI, we investigate various factors caused KI such as the relationship between quantity of KI and sinusoidal vibrostimulation conditions, and a specific tendon effectively inducing KI. In this study, we investigate optimum condition inducing KI using magnitude estimation. From two series of experiment, we confirmed that the vividness of KI was about the same for both Flexor Carpi Radialis (FCR) and Palmaris Longus (PL), and that the vividness of Flexor Carpi Ulnaris (FCU)'s KI was inferior to that of the other stimulation tendons. Furthermore, we found that the maximum illusion angle was controlled by acceleration and frequency.