Development and evaluation of a tactile speed stimulator for MRI environment

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), one of the most popular forms of neuroimaging, uses MRI to measure the hemodynamic response related to neural activity. In the present study, we developed a tactile speed stimulator for fMRI environment. The device is MRI-compatible and can serve to investigate the underlying neural mechanisms of tactile speed discrimination. The primary components of the tactile speed stimulator system include a computer, two drums with dots, a motor controller and a reaction key. We evaluated the function, precision and performance of the system in a magnetic field. The results showed that the device performance is unaffected by the magnetic field, nor does the device interfere with the magnetic field, making it usable with fMRI. Furthermore, a simple pressing button in fMRI experiment was conducted using the system. Compared to the baseline, the most prominent activation areas evoked by the button press task were in the lobulus parietalis inferior, gyrus postcentralis, gyrus frontalis inferior and gyrus precentralis.In conclusion, these results indicated that the brain activation can be reliably detected with the present device.