The study involved 16 people who were asked to hold a stick in their hands that was subjected to external impacts. All participants were able to localize the impact with near-perfect accuracy, as if the touch occurred on the arm. At the same time, the researchers, using electroencephalography (Eeg), found that the position of the impact on the instrument was decoded by the same brain regions that are activated when contact occurs directly on the body, as if the brain applied the body’s tactile perception to the object.
“These results,” comments Nadia Bolognini, professor of psychobiology and physiological psychology at the University of Milan-Bicocca. suggest that it will be possible, in the not-too-distant future, to design increasingly less invasive, high-performance neuroprostheses by generating tactile signals in them that provide optimal responses in contact with objects. This could be accomplished by taking advantage of the mechanism identified in our study, which will allow the patient to locate tactile stimuli on a prosthesis in a natural way, thus facilitating the use of the prosthesis as if it were a true extended sensory organ.”.
