{"id":205502,"date":"2024-02-10T08:17:39","date_gmt":"2024-02-10T08:17:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/2024\/02\/10\/sensitive-prosthetic-lets-man-feel-hot-and-cold-in-his-missing-hand\/"},"modified":"2025-06-25T17:21:56","modified_gmt":"2025-06-25T17:21:56","slug":"sensitive-prosthetic-lets-man-feel-hot-and-cold-in-his-missing-hand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/2024\/02\/10\/sensitive-prosthetic-lets-man-feel-hot-and-cold-in-his-missing-hand\/","title":{"rendered":"Sensitive prosthetic lets man feel hot and cold in his missing hand"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> [ad_1]<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<figure class=\"article-image-inline ArticleImage\" data-method=\"caption-shortcode\">\n<div class=\"ArticleImage__Wrapper\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images.newscientist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/09120133\/SEI_190682992.jpg?width=1200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/images.newscientist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/09120133\/SEI_190682992.jpg?width=100 100w, https:\/\/images.newscientist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/09120133\/SEI_190682992.jpg?width=200 200w, https:\/\/images.newscientist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/09120133\/SEI_190682992.jpg?width=249 249w, https:\/\/images.newscientist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/09120133\/SEI_190682992.jpg?width=300 300w, https:\/\/images.newscientist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/09120133\/SEI_190682992.jpg?width=400 400w, https:\/\/images.newscientist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/09120133\/SEI_190682992.jpg?width=500 500w, https:\/\/images.newscientist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/09120133\/SEI_190682992.jpg?width=600 600w, https:\/\/images.newscientist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/09120133\/SEI_190682992.jpg?width=700 700w, https:\/\/images.newscientist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/09120133\/SEI_190682992.jpg?width=800 800w, https:\/\/images.newscientist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/09120133\/SEI_190682992.jpg?width=900 900w\" class=\"image size-full wp-image-2416624 ReplaceImageLazyload\" sizes=\"(min-width: 1130px) 900px, (min-width: 1025px) 900, (min-width: 768px) calc(100vw - 30px), calc(100vw - 30px)\" alt=\"\" width=\"1350\" height=\"900\" data-credit=\"EPFL Caillet\" data-caption=\"Fabrizio Fidati tests the temperature-sensitive prosthetic arm\"\/><\/div><figcaption class=\"ArticleImageCaption\">\n<div class=\"ArticleImageCaption__CaptionWrapper\">\n<p class=\"ArticleImageCaption__Title\">Fabrizio Fidati tests the temperature-sensitive prosthetic arm<\/p>\n<p class=\"ArticleImageCaption__Credit\">EPFL Caillet<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n<p>A man who had his right arm amputated below the elbow has been able to feel hot and cold in his missing hand via a modified prosthetic arm with thermal sensors.<\/p>\n<p>\n    <iframe title=\"Sensitive prosthetic lets man feel hot and cold in his missing hand\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/S0SH1CxsHvE?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><br \/>\n    <\/iframe>\n<\/p>\n<p>After an amputation, some people can still perceive touch and pain sensations in their missing arm or leg, known as a phantom limb. Sometimes, these sensations can be triggered by nerve endings in the residual upper limb.<\/p>\n<p>The prosthetic works by applying heat or cold to the skin on the upper arm in specific locations that trigger a thermal sensation in the phantom hand.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn a previous study, we have shown the existence of these spots in the majority of amputee patients that we have treated,\u201d says <a href=\"https:\/\/people.epfl.ch\/solaiman.shokur\">Solaiman Shokur<\/a> at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne.<\/p>\n<p>First, Shokur and his colleagues mapped the spots on study participant Fabrizio Fidati\u2019s upper arm that trigger sensations in different parts of his phantom hand.\u00a0Then they adapted his existing prosthetic hand and socket with sensors and devices that can be made hot or cold, called thermodes.<\/p>\n<p>Tests showed that Fidati could identify bottles that were hot, cold or at ambient temperature with 100 per cent accuracy by touching them with his modified prosthetic. When the thermal sensor in the prosthetic was turned off, his accuracy dropped to a third.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"js-content-prompt-opportunity\"\/><\/p>\n<p>The prosthetic also allowed Fidati to successfully distinguish, when blindfolded, glass, copper and plastic by touch with an accuracy just above two-thirds \u2013 the same as his uninjured left hand.<\/p>\n<p>In a separate study published recently, Shokur and his colleagues showed that people with an amputation using a temperature-sensitive prosthetic <a href=\"https:\/\/onlinelibrary.wiley.com\/doi\/10.1002\/aisy.202300512\">can detect whether objects are wet or dry<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe could provide a wetness sensation to amputees and\u2026 they were as good at detecting different levels of moisture as with their intact hands,\u201d says Shokur.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sydney.edu.au\/engineering\/about\/our-people\/academic-staff\/omid-kavehei.html\">Omid Kavehei<\/a>\u00a0at the University of Sydney, Australia, says the research could one day have applications beyond prosthetics, such as giving robots a greater range of physical sensations.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s phenomenally important work,\u201d he says. However, he cautions that this wasn\u2019t a clinical trial and wonders how well the technology will work in the real world, where there are vast extremes of warm and cool weather.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI would like to see how this device performs somewhere hot and humid like Singapore,\u201d says Kavehei.<\/p>\n<section class=\"ArticleTopics\">\n<p class=\"ArticleTopics__Heading\">Topics:<\/p>\n<\/section><\/div>\n<p>[ad_2]<br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.newscientist.com\/article\/2416609-sensitive-prosthetic-lets-man-feel-hot-and-cold-in-his-missing-hand\/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&#038;utm_source=NSNS&#038;utm_medium=RSS&#038;utm_content=home\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[ad_1] Fabrizio Fidati tests the temperature-sensitive prosthetic arm EPFL Caillet A man who had his right arm amputated below the elbow has been able to<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":205503,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[177],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205502"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=205502"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205502\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":344384,"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205502\/revisions\/344384"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/205503"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=205502"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=205502"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=205502"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}