Dennis Sorensen considers himself fortunate to get a chance that most amputees won’t get: to regain some natural sensation in his left hand. About 10 years ago, his left hand was amputated after a fireworks accident. He recently traveled to Rome to try an experimental prosthetic hand that added sensors to each finger. Then surgeons inserted tiny electrodes into Sorensen’s arm that connected the finger sensors to sensory nerves in his upper arm. Almost immediately, Sorensen was able to feel shapes, sizes, and textures of objects, and he was able to control the strength of his grip. Sorensen has spent almost a year testing the device, and the results of the experiment were reported in a recent issue of Science Translational Medicine.
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