Thermal Stimulator

Description

The STMTHERM is a thermal stimulator that can deliver both hot and cold temperature stimulation to a subject. The STMTHERM can be used to identify participant thermoreceptor response thresholds for a variety of applications. The STMTHERM consists of two parts, the Stimulator Control Unit (SCU) and the included Thermal Stimulation Transducer (TSD191 Thermode) to deliver temperature stimuli to participants. The method of delivery for heating and cooling is Peltier – thermoelectric. The thermal response’s baseline will be the resting (normal) temperature of the Thermode in the ambient environment.

The STMTHERM is an “open loop” thermal stimulator, in that there is no temperature feedback incorporated into the STMTHERM design. Accordingly, the STMTHERM behaves similarly to a conventional voltage stimulator where the electrical applied stimulus is a function of stimulus level and associated stimulus loading. In the context of the STMTHERM, the thermal stimulus at the contact area of the Thermode to stimulus zone will be impacted by the heat-carrying capacity of the stimulus zone. The system is controlled via a voltage signal and the Thermode temperature can be increased or decreased in a linear or step-change fashion. The STMTHERM also has two pushbutton test modes that deliver a five-second increase or decrease, respectively, to the stimulus temperature.

The Manual Control dialog in AcqKnowledge allows the user to set a fixed analog output signal and is a nice way to control the system.