Upper limb amputees can be induced to experience a rubber hand as their own

doi:10.1093/brain/awn297

Upper limb amputees can be induced to experience a rubber hand as their own

¹Department of Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet, Retzius väg 8, SE-171 77 Stockholm, ²Department of Hand Surgery, Malmö University Hospital, SE-20502 Malmö and ³Arm Prothesis Unit, the Red Cross Hospital, 102 16 Stockholm, Sweden

Correspondence to: Dr H. Henrik Ehrsson, Department of Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet, Retzius väg 8, SE-171 77 Stockholm, Sweden E-mail: Henrik.Ehrsson{at}ki.se

Received May 31, 2008.
Revision received October 19, 2008.
Accepted October 20, 2008.

Summary

We describe how upper limb amputees can be made to experience a rubber hand as part of their own body. This was accomplished by applying synchronous touches to the stump, which was out of view, and to the index finger of a rubber hand, placed in full view (26 cm medial to the stump). This elicited an illusion of sensing touch on the artificial hand, rather than on the stump and a feeling of ownership of the rubber hand developed. This effect was supported by quantitative subjective reports in the form of questionnaires, behavioural data in the form of misreaching in a pointing task when asked to localize the position of the touch, and physiological evidence obtained by skin conductance responses when threatening the hand prosthesis. Our findings outline a simple method for transferring tactile sensations from the stump to a prosthetic limb by tricking the brain, thereby making an important contribution to the field of neuroprosthetics where a major goal is to develop artificial limbs that feel like a real parts of the body.

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