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Nine years ago , Dennis Aabo Sørensen gravely wounded his left sleeve in a firework stroke , and had to have it amputated . Now , a bionic hand has restored his ability to palpate , the first clip this has been reported in a scientific daybook .
Researchers embed electrodes in Sørensen ’s limb , and bear upon sensors in aprosthetic handto stimulate his remaining nerves . With the hand , Sørensen was able to recognize different objects by their feel , and grasp them fittingly , according to the field of study detail online today ( Feb. 5 ) in the journal Science Translational Medicine .
Amputee Dennis Aabo Sørensen wearing sensory feedback enabled prosthesis in Rome, March 2013.
" I could feel thing that I had n’t been capable to feel in over nine years , " Sørensen , who lives in Denmark , said in a statement .
So far , Sørensen is the only soul to screen the prosthesis , and he ’s had it for only a short time , but if proven to work over the long terminal figure in more people , the system could vastly meliorate the function of current prosthetic limbs and the calibre of life for their users . [ See Video of Prosthetic Hand Than Can Feel ]
Restoring pinch
The ability to feel is critical for the dexterity humans need to do basic task with their hands . Tactile information tells a person how much force to use when grasping objects as strict as a chocolate mark or as delicate as a grape .
" Without centripetal feedback from our hands , we would have difficulty performing even the most canonic activities of day-to-day living , " said Sliman Bensmaia , a neuroscientist at the University of Chicago , who was not involved in the research .
Many researchers are formulate prosthetic system aimed at restoring people ’s ability to control their arm or legs after amputation , spinal corduroy injury or disease . And increasingly , scientists are also working on incorporatingtouch - sensitive feedback . This is first scientific newspaper publisher to report such feedback successfully in a human patient .
Silvestro Micera , a neural engineer at the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna in Italy and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne in Switzerland , lead the squad that developed thefeeling bionic handwriting . Micera and his team connected touch sensors in the stilted hand to electrodes surgically embedded in the remains of spunk in Sørensen ’s upper branch . information processing system algorithms converted the signals from the sensing element into a chassis the nerves could detect .
In a month - long clinical tribulation , Sørensen tested the handwriting , sometimes wearing a blindfold and earplugs so he could bank only on his horse sense of touch when using the hand . Sørensen was able to moderate how forcefully he grasped objects , and experience their shape and clumsiness . He could tell the difference among hard , intermediate and soft objects , and identify the soma of specific objects such as a cylindrical bottle or round baseball . [ Images : Bionic Hand That Can Feel ]
Sørensen told researchers that the artificial sense of touch was similar to the innate notion he have in his other hand .
Better prosthetic equipment
In line with former approaches to replace a miss sentiency of feeling by , for example , vibrate the skin , the new approach provides " anatomically appropriate feedback , " researchers order .
" By directlystimulating the spunk , it ’s possible that you’re able to befittingly restore that centripetal feedback , " say Levi Hargrove , an electric engineer at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago , who was not postulate in the research .
Both Hargrove and Bensmaia noted that the written report is preliminary , because it involve only a exclusive person . Furthermore , for be a good and useful equipment , the system would need to be fully implantable under the skin , and would call for to keep knead over a long clock time , they said .
Although it will probably be years before a system like the one Micera and colleagues modernize is quick for clinical utilization , it is " certainly a major step in the right guidance , " Hargrove state Live Science .
