IPFS News Link • Techno Gadgets
Prosthetic hand capable of delivering texture sensations
• http://www.gizmag.comResearchers at Case Western Reserve University and the Louis Stokes Cleveland Veterans Affairs Medical Center developed the system to reactivate areas of the brain that produce the sense of touch, but recipients of prosthetic hands reported their phantom pain subsiding almost completely after being hooked up to the system.
The researchers implanted three electrode cuffs in the arm of one test subject, Igor Spetic, in May 2012, with the cuffs encircling the median, radial, and ulnar nerve bundles in his mid-forearm for a total of 19 distinct stimulation points. Another man, Keith Vonderhuevel, had cuffs implanted on his median and radial nerves in his mid-upper arm in January 2013, for a total of 16 stimulation points. Both men lost their right hand in industrial accidents (Spetic in 2010, Vonderhuevel in 2004).