Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA.
Department of Kinesiology, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, Canada.
Sci Rep. 2020 Sep 22;10(1):15471. doi: 10.1038/s41598-020-72470-0.
Prosthesis embodiment, the perception of a prosthesis as part of one's body, may be an important component of functional recovery for individuals with upper limb absence. This work determined whether embodiment differs between body-powered and myoelectric prosthesis users. In a sample of nine individuals with transradial limb absence, embodiment was quantified using a survey regarding prosthesis ownership and agency. The extent to which the prosthesis affected the body schema, the representation of the body's dimensions, was assessed using limb length estimation. Because body-powered prostheses offer proprioceptive feedback that myoelectric prostheses do not, it was hypothesized that both measures would reveal stronger embodiment of body-powered prostheses. However, our results did not show differences across the two prosthesis designs. Instead, body schema was influenced by several patient-specific characteristics, including the cause of limb absence (acquired or congenital) and hours of daily prosthesis wear. These results indicate that regular prosthesis wear and embodiment are connected, regardless of the actual prosthesis design. Identifying whether embodiment is a direct consequence of regular prosthesis use would offer insight on how individuals with limb absence could modify their behavior to more fully embody their prosthesis.
假体体现，即个体将假体视为自身身体的一部分的感知，可能是上肢缺失患者功能恢复的一个重要组成部分。本研究旨在确定肌电假肢和体外力源假肢使用者之间是否存在假体体现的差异。在一个九名桡骨截肢者的样本中，通过关于假体所有权和代理权的调查来量化假体体现。使用肢体长度估计来评估假肢对身体图式的影响，即身体维度的表示。由于体外力源假肢提供肌电假肢所没有的本体感觉反馈，因此假设这两种测量方法都将揭示出更强的假体体现。然而，我们的结果并未显示出两种假体设计之间的差异。相反，身体图式受到几个患者特定特征的影响，包括肢体缺失的原因（后天获得或先天）和每天佩戴假肢的时间。这些结果表明，无论实际的假体设计如何，定期佩戴假肢与假体体现之间存在关联。确定假体体现是否是定期使用假肢的直接结果，将为了解上肢缺失患者如何改变行为以更好地体现假体提供深入认识。
