blueprint for restoring touch-Meg Mickelsen

Groundbreaking new research at the University of Chicago is building a foundation for the possibility of touch-sensitive prosthetic limbs.  To achieve such sophisticated technology,  one has to replace the motor signals that brain sends to the arm to move it and the replace the sensory signals that the arm sends back to the brain.  Scientists are achieving this by studying the way or brains process sensory information and trying to reproduce these complex neural patterns, through stimulation of the brain.  Sliman Bensmaia, a pioneer of this new technology, has thus far been successful when implementing this technology on chimps.  Chimps were trained to respond to physical touch of the finger a certain way and then through electrical stimuli delivered to the brain the sensation of touch was reproduces.  The chimps responded in the same way to artificial touch as they did to physical.  The same experiment was done, but with a focus on pressure and the chimps could not differentiate between actual physical pressure and artificial stimulation of pressure.  Bensmaia was also successful at stimulating contact events in chimps.  All of these experiments will help the development of a robotic prosthetic arm that functions the same way as a human arm would.  This research is coming close to being tested in human clinical trial.  I think this research is amazing, because it could mean so much for those who have lost limbs.  There could be a complete restoration of sensory motor function! Research, such as this propels humans forward in medicine and science. The full article can be find here http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/10/131014155638.htm.