Amputee feels in real-time with bionic hand

Dennis Aabo Sorensen is the first amputee in the world to feel sensory rich information -- in realtime -- with a prosthetic hand wired to nerves in his upper arm. Sorensen could grasp objects intuitively and identify what he was touching while blindfolded.

Nine years after an accident caused the loss of his left hand, Dennis Aabo Sorensen from Denmark became the first amputee in the world to feel -- in real-time -- with a sensory-enhanced prosthetic hand that was surgically wired to nerves in his upper arm.

Silvestro Micera and his team at EPFL (Switzerland) and SSSA (Italy) developed the revolutionary sensory feedback that allowed Sorensen to feel again while handling objects. A prototype of this bionic technology was tested in February 2013 during a clinical trial in Rome under the supervision of Paolo Maria Rossini at Gemelli Hospital (Italy).

"The sensory feedback was incredible," reports the 36 year-old amputee from Denmark. "I could feel things that I hadn't been able to feel in over nine years." In a laboratory setting wearing a blindfold and earplugs, Sorensen was able to detect how strongly he was grasping, as well as the shape and consistency of different objects he picked up with his prosthetic. "When I held an object, I could feel if it was soft or hard, round or square."

"This is the first time in neuroprosthetics that sensory feedback has been restored and used by an amputee in real-time to control an artificial limb," says Micera.

"We were worried about reduced sensitivity in Dennis' nerves since they hadn't been used in over nine years," says Stanisa Raspopovic, first author and scientist at EPFL and SSSA. These concerns faded away as the scientists successfully reactivated Sorensen's sense of touch.