Sensitive prosthetic lets man feel hot and cold in his missing hand

A man who had his right arm amputated below the elbow has been able to feel hot and cold in his missing hand via a modified prosthetic arm with thermal sensors. After an amputation, some people can still perceive touch and pain sensations in their missing arm or leg, known as a phantom limb. Sometimes, these sensations can be triggered by nerve endings in the residual upper limb. The prosthetic works by applying heat or cold to the skin on the upper arm in specific locations that trigger a thermal sensation in the phantom hand. "In a previous study, we have shown the existence of these spots in the majority of amputee patients that we have treated," says Solaiman Shokur at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne.