STAT+: Tweezers? Wrenches? Researchers plot prosthetics’ future with tools, not hands
Nearly half of people with upper-limb prosthetics abandon them. They’re often uncomfortable, dysfunctional or just don’t feel like a part of someone’s body.
But in a recent study in iScience, researchers made an unusual choice. They used virtual reality to try out bionic tools like tweezers or wrenches as hand prosthetics. The participants felt as or even more embodied with these tools compared with a “natural” hand. The team hypothesized that the device’s function is perhaps more important than its aesthetics to ensure a greater sense of embodiment for users.
“Our question was, can human beings merge with tools? Can we merge biology and technology?” said Ottavia Maddaluno, a neuroscientist at the Laboratory of Neuroscience and Applied Technology, Santa Lucia Foundation in Rome and one of the study’s co-authors. “And our results find out that, surprisingly, we can.”
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