The artificial hand that amputees feel is their own
Electrodes implanted around nerves enable amputees to control gentleness of touch
Scientists are moving closer to an artificial hand that can feel: Implanted electrodes have allowed some amputees to tell by touch how gently to grasp, letting them pluck fruit without crushing it.
Two amputees told researchers at Case Western Reserve University that when some of their remaining nerves were wired to a robotic arm they felt more like they were grasping objects with their own hand than with a tool.
"This feels like normal sensation," one of the men, Igor Spetic, said.
When researchers touched different spots on his artificial hand, "sometimes it felt like a cotton ball", he said. "Sometimes like sandpaper."
An unexpected benefit: The phantom pain both men had felt since losing their limbs in industrial accidents had nearly disappeared since they began the experiment, the researchers reported on Wednesday in the journal Science Translational Medicine.
It will take years of additional research before robotic hands really let people feel what they touch. But the new research was an important step, said Dr Michael Boninger, who directs the University of Pittsburgh Medical Centre's rehabilitation institute.
Beyond better function, getting feedback from the limb "would be a spectacular thing to be able to have, that you feel like the arm is your own", he said.