Amplitude
  • MAGAZINE
    • Subscribe
    • Current Issue
    • Archives
    • Living With Amplitude
      • Adaptive Living
      • Amputee to Amputee
      • Arts & Culture
      • Education
      • Featured
      • Getting Support
      • Giving Support
      • Health & Medicine
      • Money Matters
      • Relationships
      • Science & Technology
      • Sports & Recreation
      • Transportation & Mobility
      • More Amplitude
  • NEWSLETTER
  • RESOURCES
    • Guide to Living With Limb Loss
    • Prosthetist Search
    • Support Groups
    • Resource Directory
  • ABOUT US
    • Contact Us
    • Advertiser Information
    • Privacy Policy
    • Cookie Policy
    • Cancellation Policy
  • SUBSCRIBE
No Result
View All Result
  • MAGAZINE
    • Subscribe
    • Current Issue
    • Archives
    • Living With Amplitude
      • Adaptive Living
      • Amputee to Amputee
      • Arts & Culture
      • Education
      • Featured
      • Getting Support
      • Giving Support
      • Health & Medicine
      • Money Matters
      • Relationships
      • Science & Technology
      • Sports & Recreation
      • Transportation & Mobility
      • More Amplitude
  • NEWSLETTER
  • RESOURCES
    • Guide to Living With Limb Loss
    • Prosthetist Search
    • Support Groups
    • Resource Directory
  • ABOUT US
    • Contact Us
    • Advertiser Information
    • Privacy Policy
    • Cookie Policy
    • Cancellation Policy
  • SUBSCRIBE
No Result
View All Result
Amplitude

Researchers Trick Brain Into Embodying Prosthesis

August 20, 2018
0

In a scientific collaboration between the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland, and Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna, Pisa, Italy, researchers combined virtual reality and artificial tactile sensations to allow two people with amputations to feel as though their prosthetic hands belonged to their bodies. The results were published August 15 in the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry. “The brain regularly uses its senses to evaluate what belongs to the body and what is external to the body. We showed exactly how vision and touch can be combined to trick the amputee’s brain into feeling what it sees, inducing embodiment of the prosthetic hand with an additional effect that the phantom limb grows into the prosthetic one,” said Giulio Rognini, PhD, from EPFL’s Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroprosthetics. “The setup is portable and could one day be turned into a therapy to help patients embody their prosthetic limb permanently.”

The participants each had a left transradial amputation and were given transverse intrafascicular multichannel electrode (TIMEs) implants. The scientists provided artificial tactile sensations by stimulating nerves in each participant’s residual limb that related to the tip of his index finger. At the same time, the patient wore virtual reality goggles that showed the index finger of the prosthetic limb glowing as the touch sensations were administered.

Both patients reported feeling as though their prosthetic hands belonged to their bodies. Moreover, when asked to evaluate the position of their hands, both patients felt as though their phantom limbs had extended into the prosthetic limbs. Before the experiment, they reported that the phantom hand was small and directly connected to the residual limb, as if the phantom limb had no forearm, referred to as telescoping. During the experiment, they said they felt their phantom limbs had extended and remained extended for up to ten minutes afterwards.

The experiment required the patient to passively observe two sensations on the fingertip, the visual glow and the artificial touch happening in synchrony, in order for embodiment and extension of the phantom limb to take place. EPFL says this is the first time that the principles of multisensory integration, in particular how the brain integrates bodily multisensory information to create the coherent and compelling experience of having a body, have been tailored to provoke embodiment of the prosthetic hand and reduction of telescoping.

The study builds upon research led by EPFL that began in 2014, in which scientists were able to provide real-time bidirectional sensory perception to Dennis Aabo Sørensen, who also has a left transradial amputation. In 2016, Sørensen was able to detect differences in texture by using the enhanced technology.

Editor’s note: This story was adapted from materials provided by École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne.

Tags: amputee to amputeegetting supportgiving supportScience & Technology
Previous Post

NAAOP’s Inaugural Fellowship Session Ends August 7

Next Post

Adaptive Sports Event Closes With Numerous Broken Records

Next Post

Adaptive Sports Event Closes With Numerous Broken Records


Subscribe Today

Recent Posts

  • ROMP Seeks Volunteers at Amputee Clinics
  • The Amputee Insurance Law You Should Be Tracking Right Now
  • Amputee Caregiver Support, State by State
  • Sarah Doherty, 1959-2023
  • Amputee Coalition Joins Amputation Prevention Alliance

201 East 4th Street
Loveland, CO 80537
303-255-0843
©2022 Amplitude Media Group

Today’s amputees are living more dynamic lives than ever before. Amplitude Magazine tells their stories.

About Us
Privacy Policy
Subscribe

FOLLOW US

Facebook Twitter Instagram Linkedin

No part of this electronic publication/website may be reproduced in any form or by any means without prior written permission from Amplitude Media Group.

No Result
View All Result
  • MAGAZINE
    • Subscribe
    • Current Issue
    • Archives
    • Living With Amplitude
      • Adaptive Living
      • Amputee to Amputee
      • Arts & Culture
      • Education
      • Featured
      • Getting Support
      • Giving Support
      • Health & Medicine
      • Money Matters
      • Relationships
      • Science & Technology
      • Sports & Recreation
      • Transportation & Mobility
      • More Amplitude
  • NEWSLETTER
  • RESOURCES
    • Guide to Living With Limb Loss
    • Prosthetist Search
    • Support Groups
    • Resource Directory
  • ABOUT US
    • Contact Us
    • Advertiser Information
    • Privacy Policy
    • Cookie Policy
    • Cancellation Policy
  • SUBSCRIBE

Amplitude