This pilot study investigates how muscle activation affects the pattern recognition of tactile cues delivered through electrical stimulation (ES) during normal walking gait cycles. Three healthy adults participated in the experiment, where ES was applied to the gastrocnemius lateralis (GL) and biceps brachii (BB) while walking on a treadmill.

The findings revealed varying recognition patterns among participants, with the BB demonstrating more variability due to its lower activation compared to the more engaged GL. Dynamic time warping (DTW) was employed to assess the similarity between muscle activation and electro-stimulated haptic perception. The DTW distance between electromyography (EMG) signals and muscle recognition patterns was significantly smaller for the GL (4.87 ± 0.21) compared to the BB (8.65 ± 1.36), indicating a 78.6% relative difference. This suggests that higher muscle activation is generally linked to more consistent haptic perception.

However, individual differences and variations in recognition patterns were noted, indicating that personal variability plays a significant role in perception outcomes. This study emphasizes the complexity of human neuromuscular responses to artificial sensory stimuli and suggests a potential connection between muscle activity and haptic perception.