Brain implant revives some feelings of touch in a paralyzed man

When researchers at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center blindfolded a paralyzed man whose was linked to a robotic hand, he could successfully identify which fingers were being touched 84 percent of the time. Mind-controlled robot arms can now generate feelings of touch, based on new research from the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. The study, published today in Science Translational Medicine, represents a first for brain-computer interfaces and fulfills a major stage in creating robotic prosthetic arms for tetraplegics that can hold objects. "One of the reasons providing sensation is really important is when you reach out to pick something up, it's that sense of touch that allows you to hold the object properly," Robert Gaunt, the project's leader and a physical medicine and rehabilitation researcher at Pitt, told the NewsHour. That's because to touch an object like an apple, your brain requires two things: movement and feeling.