Effect of subthreshold haptic stimulation on learning

Virtual reality (VR) technologies allow to reproduce the working process. Forming the correct dynamics, personification of training and quality control can be solved using the haptic technology. We hypothesized that the use of haptic stimulation technology in combination with VR simulation of a working process will increase the efficiency of learning. Our aim was to investigate the effects of haptic electrical stimulation on motor learning and corresponding brain activity. The learning was carried out in a VR simulator with a full-body haptic suit (Teslasuit, https://teslasuit.io) to reinforce the correct and incorrect actions. During the calibration process, an individual sensitivity threshold was determined, which was fixed for subthreshold stimuli. A subthreshold activating haptic stimulus was presented before each block of tasks, and each error was punished by a tangible, but not critical in strength, haptic stimulus. 20 male volunteers (aged 22-41 years) were recruited. EEG was registered using 24-channel wireless EEG system SMARTING (mBrainTrain, Serbia). The use of subthreshold stimulation leads to a decrease in the number of missed actions. Subthreshold haptic stimuli during learning were accompanied by an increase in spectral power in the theta-beta and gamma range in the occipital regions (processes of identification of incoming information and attention), central and parietal cortex (stimulus processing and sensorimotor integration). The obtained results indicate that enhancement of the effectiveness of VR simulator training may be the result of the activation of brain areas involved in the learning process processes by subthreshold haptic stimulation, which significantly accelerated the acquisition of new material.