Rosén Birgitta, Ehrsson H Henrik, Antfolk Christian, Cipriani Christian, Sebelius Fredrik, Lundborg Göran
Department of Hand Surgery, Malmö University Hospital, Malmö, Sweden.
Scand J Plast Reconstr Surg Hand Surg. 2009;43(5):260-6. doi: 10.3109/02844310903113107.
Hand prostheses that are currently available on the market are used by amputees to only a limited extent, partly because of lack of sensory feedback from the artificial hand. We report a pilot study that showed how amputees can experience a robot-like advanced hand prosthesis as part of their own body. We induced a perceptual illusion by which touch applied to the stump of the arm was experienced from the artificial hand. This illusion was elicited by applying synchronous tactile stimulation to the hidden amputation stump and the robotic hand prosthesis in full view. In five people who had had upper limb amputations this stimulation caused referral touch sensation from the stump to the artificial hand, and the prosthesis was experienced more like a real hand. We also showed that this illusion can work when the amputee controls the movements of the artificial hand by recordings of the arm muscle activity with electromyograms. These observations indicate that the previously described "rubber hand illusion" is also valid for an advanced hand prosthesis, even when it has a robotic-like appearance.
目前市场上现有的手部假肢，截肢者对其使用程度有限，部分原因是缺乏来自假手的感觉反馈。我们报告了一项试点研究，该研究展示了截肢者如何能将类似机器人的先进手部假肢体验为自身身体的一部分。我们诱发了一种知觉错觉，即施加在手臂残端的触摸能从假手上被感知到。这种错觉是通过对隐藏的截肢残端和在视野中完全可见的机器人手部假肢施加同步触觉刺激而引发的。在五名上肢截肢者中，这种刺激导致触摸感觉从残端转移到假手上，并且假肢被体验得更像一只真手。我们还表明，当截肢者通过肌电图记录手臂肌肉活动来控制假手的运动时，这种错觉也能起作用。这些观察结果表明，先前描述的“橡胶手错觉”对于先进的手部假肢同样有效，即使它具有类似机器人的外观。
