A study of human physiological response to intensity of somatosensory stimulation applied to the ankle tendon

The present study was conducted to observe human physiological response through EEG to intensity of somatosensory stimulation applied on the tibialis anterior and Achilles tendons. In order to investigate the relation between physiological response and somatosensory stimulation, two hypotheses were established. First, different human body reactions may be induced depending on the location of the incoming somatosensory stimulation; second, somatosensory stimulation even at sub-threshold levels could significantly affect the human body. The experiment was conducted with the somatosensory stimulation system and EEG system, seven male adults were involved. The three kinds of somatosensory stimulation (sub-threshold, threshold, supra-threshold) was uesd, these stimulation was applied to the Achilles tendon and the tibialis anterior tendon of the subjects, and their brain waves were measured. According to the results of experiments, the brain response to somatosensory stimulation to the ankle tendons and the structures that play an important role in walking were shown to be different according to the inflow location of the somatosensory stimulation. And the brain response to somatosensory stimulation to the tibialis anterior tendon and Achilles tendon appeared similar regardless of the stimulation intensity.