Restoring natural sensory feedback in real-time bidirectional hand prostheses

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Engineering
• Neuroscience
• Rehabilitation Medicine

Background:

• Hand loss significantly impacts quality of life, necessitating advanced prosthetic solutions.
• Current prosthetic hands lack essential sensory feedback, limiting their functionality and user experience.
• Bidirectional prostheses require real-time decoding of user intent and naturalistic sensory feedback.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and evaluate a system for delivering near-natural sensory information to amputees via prosthetic hands.
• To investigate the ability of sensory feedback to enhance prosthetic hand control and object perception.
• To improve the efficacy and life-like quality of upper-limb prostheses.

Main Methods:

• Stimulation of median and ulnar nerve fascicles using transversal multichannel intrafascicular electrodes.
• Real-time decoding of grasping tasks to control a dexterous hand prosthesis.
• Delivery of physiologically appropriate sensory information based on artificial sensor data.

Main Results:

• Amputees received near-natural sensory feedback during real-time prosthetic hand control.
• Participants could modulate grasping force without visual or auditory cues, distinguishing three force levels.
• Subjects identified object stiffness and shape through elicited sensations, demonstrating high perceptual complexity.

Conclusions:

• This approach provides physiologically appropriate sensory feedback, enhancing prosthetic hand control and perception.
• The system enables intuitive modulation of grip force and object property discrimination.
• This technology represents a significant advancement towards near-natural replacement of missing hands.