Successfully tested a new way to make the hand prosthesis “dialogue” with the phantom limb: it allows you to transmit the sensation of heat and cold to the touch, without using electrodes or interventions
It’s like a super-technological sheet that is applied to the skin and allows you to perceive the sensation of heat or cold. The skin is that of people who have undergone the
hand amputation, for example at the level of the forearm. The extraordinary thing is that the sensation is perceived by the hand that is no longer there. This is possible thanks to the strange phenomenon of the “phantom limb”, that sensation
which continues to make amputees perceive the hand as still existing, so much so that sometimes it can also generate painful sensations. Until a few years ago, this phenomenon was considered a sort of neurological disorder, but now researchers think it could represent a spontaneous reorganization of the severed nerve endings, usable for therapeutic-rehabilitative purposes.
The phantom limb
«The phenomenon of the phantom limb is exploited in this case to give the sensation of having regained the possibility of perceiving heat and cold, thanks to a temperature sensor which establishes contact between the patient’s residual limb and the objects of the ‘environment’ says Silvestro Micera, who works between the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna in Pisa and the Polytechnic University of Lausanne. And, given that on the residual stump there are areas in the brain capable of representing the sensation of heat at the level of the individual missing fingers – the so-called “thermal maps” -, the person has the sensation of sensing the temperature of objects right on the fingers which is exploring in the environment.
“Anyone who has had a hand amputation will be able to do so perceive through the aesthetic or functional prosthesis the temperature of the objects it touches, so as to have greater safety, avoiding those that are too hot – says Micera -. But, at the same time, it will be able to touch people again, being able to receive what is called the “affective touch”, the possibility of understanding that the hand or face he is touching belongs to another human being”.
Research
The research was carried out on 27 hand amputees and was conducted by Francesco Iberite, of the Sant’Anna High School in Pisa with the coordination of Micera and the contribution of Federico Morosato of the Inail Prosthesis Center. Published in the scientific journal Science, now opens up different perspectives. «For example, that of aintegration of this device into traditional prostheses – explains Micera -, while in about ten years integrated multisensory prostheses for both touch and heat could be put on the market».
May 23, 2023 (change May 23, 2023 | 5:27 pm)
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