Testing silicone digit extensions as a way to suppress natural sensation to evaluate supplementary tactile feedback.

Dexterous use of the hands depends critically on sensory feedback, so it is generally agreed that functional supplementary feedback would greatly improve the use of hand prostheses. Much research still focuses on improving non-invasive feedback that could potentially become available to all prosthesis users. However, few studies on supplementary tactile feedback for hand prostheses demonstrated a functional benefit.

Neural feedback strategies to improve grasping coordination in neuromusculoskeletal prostheses.

Conventional prosthetic arms suffer from poor controllability and lack of sensory feedback. Owing to the absence of tactile sensory information, prosthetic users must rely on incidental visual and auditory cues. In this study, we investigated the effect of providing tactile perception on motor coordination during routine grasping and grasping under uncertainty.

When Less Is More - Discrete Tactile Feedback Dominates Continuous Audio Biofeedback in the Integrated Percept While Controlling a Myoelectric Prosthetic Hand.

State of the art myoelectric hand prostheses can restore some feedforward motor function to their users, but they cannot yet restore sensory feedback. It has been shown, using psychophysical tests, that multi-modal sensory feedback is readily used in the formation of the users' representation of the control task in their central nervous system - their internal model. Hence, to fully describe the effect of providing feedback to prosthesis users, not only should functional outcomes be assessed, but so should the internal model.

Myocontrol is closed-loop control: incidental feedback is sufficient for scaling the prosthesis force in routine grasping.

Background: Sensory feedback is critical for grasping in able-bodied subjects. Consequently, closing the loop in upper-limb prosthetics by providing artificial sensory feedback to the amputee is expected to improve the prosthesis utility. Nevertheless, even though amputees rate the prospect of sensory feedback high, its benefits in daily life are still very much debated.

Improving internal model strength and performance of prosthetic hands using augmented feedback.

Background: The loss of an arm presents a substantial challenge for upper limb amputees when performing activities of daily living. Myoelectric prosthetic devices partially replace lost hand functions; however, lack of sensory feedback and strong understanding of the myoelectric control system prevent prosthesis users from interacting with their environment effectively. Although most research in augmented sensory feedback has focused on real-time regulation, sensory feedback is also essential for enabling the development and correction of internal models, which in turn are used for planning movements and reacting to control variability faster than otherwise possible in the presence of sensory delays.

Discrete Vibro-Tactile Feedback Prevents Object Slippage in Hand Prostheses More Intuitively Than Other Modalities.

In the case of a hand amputation, the affected can use myoelectric prostheses to substitute the missing limb and regain motor functionality. Unfortunately, these prostheses do not restore sensory feedback, thus users are forced to rely on vision to avoid object slippage. This is cognitively taxing, as it requires continuous attention to the task.

The clinical relevance of advanced artificial feedback in the control of a multi-functional myoelectric prosthesis.

Background: To effectively replace the human hand, a prosthesis should seamlessly respond to user intentions but also convey sensory information back to the user. Restoration of sensory feedback is rated highly by the prosthesis users, and feedback is critical for grasping in able-bodied subjects. Nonetheless, the benefits of feedback in prosthetics are still debated.