Notice of Violation of IEEE Publication Principles: Cortical response of the projected-thumb tactile sensation under TENS by MEG

Notice of Violation of IEEE Publication Principles

"Cortical Response of the Projected-thumb Tactile Sensation under TENS by MEG,"
by Y. Chen, M. N. Li, C. Y. Cao, X. L. Zhu and X. H. Sui,
in the Proceedings of the 39th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC), 2017, pp. 509-512

After careful and considered review of the content and authorship of this paper by a duly constituted expert committee, this paper has been found to be in violation of IEEE's Publication Principles.

The committee determined that the submitting author, X.H. Sui, omitted the contributions of Prof. Ning Lan and Dr. Chuanxin Niu from the paper. Reasonable effort should be made to remove all past references to this paper, and future references should be made to the following article:

"Somatosensory Cortex Activation during Electrical Stimulation of Projected Finger Map on the Stump Skin of Forearm Amputee"
by X. D. Liu, M. Z. Hao, C. Y. Cao, C. M. Niu and N. Lan,
in the Proceedings of the First IEEE Life Sciences Conference (LSC), December 2017


The existence of projected finger territories (PFTs) near the stump provides an essential way to realize the tactile sensation of lost fingers by transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS). After amputation, the somatosensory cortex corresponding to lost fingers might be invaded by other cortical areas due to cortical plasticity. However, it was seldom observed how the amputees could feel the projected or lost finger tactile sensation in the cerebral cortex under TENS. To answer this question, by using magnetoencephalography (MEG), we investigated the cortical response under TENS of the projected thumb territory and normal thumb with 2 Hz current pulses. One subject with long-term left forearm amputation was recruited. The temporal and spatial characteristics of the activated cortical magnetic signals were analyzed. The Equivalent Current Dipoles (ECDs) corresponding to the strongest strength were mapped in the cerebral cortex, and the current density distribution were clearly illustrated. We found that the latencies at the maximum ECD strength were 60 ± 1.41 ms for the projected thumb and 46 ± 1.25 ms for the normal counterpart. The strongest ECD corresponding to projected thumb was located in the central sulcus near the mirror location of the normal thumb counterpart. And the response strengths of projected thumb cortex were stronger than normal thumb counterpart.