A bionic arm that combined intuitive motor control, touch and grip will allow amputees feel the sensation of feeling objects, its developers claim. This is the first prosthetic limb that is able to test all key functions of a hand at the same time, and uses a brain-computer interface to trigger the interaction. Lead investigator Professor Paul Marasco, of the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, said test subjects felt one of their hands was moving, even though they didn't have a hand, and felt as if their fingers were touching things, even though they had no fingers. Putting touch, grip and motor control together, worked to trick the senses and brain of the wearer into thinking the prosthetic was a real human hand, Prof Marasco said. It links to limb nerves which send impulses from the patient's brains to the prosthetic when they want to use or move it, and the arm receives physical information from the environment through sensors, sending it back into the brain through nerves.

Pain is an indispensable tool for survival. The prick of a nail underfoot is a warning that protects you from a deep, dirty wound--and maybe tetanus. The sizzle of a steel skillet is a deterrent against a third-degree burn. As much as it sucks, pain, oddly enough, keeps us from hurting ourselves. It's a luxury that prosthetic users don't have.

A former US marine who lost her left arm at the shoulder in a motorcycle accident has been fitted with a bionic prosthetic arm that allows her to feel things through the fake fingers. Claudia Mitchell, 37, never thought she'd be able to do things like open water bottles or pick up items with her left thumb and forefinger again after her arm was amputated. However, through more than a decade of research trials a team at Cleveland Clinic has created a bionic prosthetic arm that allows her to do most of those things she didn't think would ever be possible. The cutting-edge technology is part of a booming field of research into prosthetics that could revolutionize movement for amputees. Claudia Mitchell, 37, lost her arm at the shoulder in a motorcycle accident in 2004.

When it comes to moving your limbs, you don't need to see to believe. Intuitively, you know where your limbs are, as well as the positions they're making. This kind of awareness, called kinesthesia, is missing from prosthetic limbs--especially advanced, motorized ones. But a new study published in Science Translational Medicine lays out how a sense of self can be extended to prostheses, through cleverly crafted illusions. "By restoring the intuitive feeling of limb movement--the sensation of opening and closing your hand--we are able to blur the lines between what the patients' brains perceived as'self' versus'machine'," said Paul Marasco, director of the Cleveland Clinic's Laboratory for Bionic Integration, in a statement.