Scientists from the University of Montpellier in France, together with their Japanese colleagues, developed a robotic sixth finger attached to volunteers’ hands to study the brain’s response to a new part of the body. This experiment was described by one of the researchers. portal Transformation.
An additional finger is attached to the hand along with a special glove – scientists have developed an algorithm with which the glove can accurately determine the muscle activity of the forearm. Thus, users can control this sixth finger independently of the others. It is also equipped with a tactile sensor.
“We studied how the body responds to a new finger. The same thing happens when, for example, the body has to accept a prosthesis. Based on behavioral experiments and brain MRI, we found that changes in users’ body image occurred very quickly. For example, participants did not look at their finger at a drawn line. “We asked them to touch it with their little finger. People began to doubt the position of their little finger in space,” explains the author.
Currently, scientists continue to work – in the future they hope to determine the degree of change in users’ brain activity. In the future, this will help improve the experience of using prosthetics.
“For example, we can look at which parts of the brain are activated when the user moves their finger. It’s actually quite easy to make our brain believe that artificial limbs are part of our body. This flexibility is very useful and we can use it. In this study, we are concerned with the limits of such an acceptance,” he said.