Surgeons have managed to give an amputee not only a prosthetic arm that moves as directed by her thoughts, but also the feeling of touch - albeit in the wrong part of her body.

When Claudia Mitchell presses an area on her chest, where surgeons re-wired the nerves that used to run to her hand, it feels to her as if her fingers are being touched.

The technique opens the door to additional technologies that could one day relay signals from the prosthesis back to the 'fingers' on the chest, allowing an amputee to get sensory information such as touch and temperature from their artificial limb.

Mitchell's success story was revealed in a press conference last year, but now the details have been published: they are reported this week in the Lancet.1.


Posted by: Rose    Source

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