Bionic technology helps amputees feel warmth in phantom hands

The 59-year-old Italian is among 27 amputees who took part in trials for a new technology developed by the École Polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), published today in the journal Science.

It allows patients to sense the temperature of objects, from the coolness of running water to the heat of a stove burner, in their phantom hands.

"The first time I took part in the experiment, I felt like I had rediscovered feeling in my phantom hand," said Friday.

A phantom limb refers to the striking sensation that a limb, which has undergone removal or amputation, continues to exist.

With thermal electrodes placed on the skin of their residual arm, amputees like Fidati have reported feeling hot or cold sensations in their phantom hand and fingers, and have been able to differentiate between plastic, glass and copper.

“Most of the amputees, by providing the information at the residuum (residual member), so at the level of the amputation, they feel the temperature for the heating or cooling happening at the phantom hand,” EPFL professor and co-lead of the study, Silvestro Micera said.

The technology, which has been tested for more than two years, does not need to be implanted. It can be worn on the skin and combined with a regular prosthetic hand.

"We think that we could give people a better sense of embodiment of their hands and maybe even give them the possibility to feel their loved ones in a much more natural way," said Solaiman Shokur, a senior scientist neuro engineer at EPFL who co-led the study.

The next step for the research team would now be to test the device on a larger scale before combining it with other technologies to improve tactile sensations in amputees.

Fidati said the tingling he had in his phantom hand subsided when the device allowed him to feel sensations of warmth and cold, and said it could facilitate the lives of amputees when they cook or want to assess the temperature of water when brushing their teeth.

“These experiments give me hope that a more advanced prosthesis could come out,” he said.

Reuters