Artificial proprioception for myoelectric control

The typical control of myoelectric interfaces, be it in real-life prosthetic applications or laboratory settings, largely relies on visual feedback, while proprioceptive feedback from controlling muscles is not very informative about the task carried out. If proprioceptive feedback were artificially provided to a non-controlling limb, could it be effectively integrated into myoelectric control? In a two-dimensional myoelectric-controlled centre-out task, we aimed to restore proprioception by guiding subjects´ right hands along the trajectory of a visual cursor they were controlling with isometric muscle contractions in their left hand. Overall task success was equally high with vision alone as it was with the additional proprioceptive signal, indicating that visual feedback was already sufficient. Still, presence of artificial proprioception did enhance control when visual feedback was not available. Interestingly, sensory integration of the proprioceptive information was established while it appeared to be redundant to existing visual feedback. However, utilization of the artificial proprioceptive signal was severely impaired when it was vertically mirrored with respect to visual feedback, outlining the importance of congruence of sensory modalities for implicit multi-sensory integration.