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Zollo L, Di Pino G, Ciancio AL, Ranieri F, Cordella F, Gentile C, Noce E, Romeo RA, Bellingegni AD, Vadalà G, Miccinilli S, Mioli A, Diaz-Balzani L, Bravi M, Hoffmann KP, Schneider A, Denaro L, Davalli A, Gruppioni E, Sacchetti R, Castellano S, Di Lazzaro V, Sterzi S, Denaro V, Guglielmelli E. Restoring Tactile sensations via neural interfaces for real-time force-and-slippage closed-loop control of bionic hands. Sci Robot 2019; 4. [PMID: 31620665 DOI: 10.1126/scirobotics.aau9924] [Citation(s) in RCA: 72] [Impact Index Per Article: 14.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/22/2022]
Abstract
Despite previous studies on the restoration of tactile sensation on the fingers and the hand, there are no examples of use of the routed sensory information to finely control the prosthesis hand in complex grasp and manipulation tasks. Here it is shown that force and slippage sensations can be elicited in an amputee subject by means of biologically-inspired slippage detection and encoding algorithms, supported by a stick-slip model of the performed grasp. A combination of cuff and intraneural electrodes was implanted for eleven weeks in a young woman with hand amputation, and was shown to provide close-to-natural force and slippage sensations, paramount for significantly improving the subject's manipulative skills with the prosthesis. Evidence is provided about the improvement of the subject's grasping and manipulation capabilities over time, thanks to neural feedback. The elicited tactile sensations enabled the successful fulfillment of fine grasp and manipulation tasks with increasing complexity. Grasp performance was quantitatively assessed by means of instrumented objects and a purposely developed metrics. Closed-loop control capabilities enabled by the neural feedback were compared to those achieved without feedback. Further, the work investigates whether the described amelioration of motor performance in dexterous tasks had as central neurophysiological correlates changes in motor cortex plasticity and whether such changes were of purely motor origin, or else the effect of a strong and persistent drive of the sensory feedback.
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Affiliation(s)
- Loredana Zollo
- Research Unit of Biomedical Robotics and Biomicrosystems, Università Campus Bio-Medico di Roma
| | - Giovanni Di Pino
- Research Unit of Neurophysiology and Neuroengineering of Human-Technology Interaction, Università Campus Bio-Medico di Roma
| | - Anna L Ciancio
- Research Unit of Biomedical Robotics and Biomicrosystems, Università Campus Bio-Medico di Roma
| | - Federico Ranieri
- Research Unit of Neurology, Neurophysiology, Neurobiology, Università Campus Bio-Medico di Roma
| | - Francesca Cordella
- Research Unit of Biomedical Robotics and Biomicrosystems, Università Campus Bio-Medico di Roma
| | - Cosimo Gentile
- Research Unit of Biomedical Robotics and Biomicrosystems, Università Campus Bio-Medico di Roma
| | - Emiliano Noce
- Research Unit of Biomedical Robotics and Biomicrosystems, Università Campus Bio-Medico di Roma
| | - Rocco A Romeo
- Research Unit of Biomedical Robotics and Biomicrosystems, Università Campus Bio-Medico di Roma
| | | | - Gianluca Vadalà
- Research Unit of Orthopedics and Traumatology, Università Campus Bio-Medico di Roma
| | - Sandra Miccinilli
- Research Unit of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Università Campus Bio-Medico di Roma
| | - Alessandro Mioli
- Research Unit of Neurophysiology and Neuroengineering of Human-Technology Interaction, Università Campus Bio-Medico di Roma
| | - Lorenzo Diaz-Balzani
- Research Unit of Orthopedics and Traumatology, Università Campus Bio-Medico di Roma
| | - Marco Bravi
- Research Unit of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Università Campus Bio-Medico di Roma
| | | | | | - Luca Denaro
- Department of Neurosciences, University of Padova
| | | | | | | | | | - Vincenzo Di Lazzaro
- Research Unit of Neurology, Neurophysiology, Neurobiology, Università Campus Bio-Medico di Roma
| | - Silvia Sterzi
- Research Unit of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Università Campus Bio-Medico di Roma
| | - Vincenzo Denaro
- Research Unit of Orthopedics and Traumatology, Università Campus Bio-Medico di Roma
| | - Eugenio Guglielmelli
- Research Unit of Biomedical Robotics and Biomicrosystems, Università Campus Bio-Medico di Roma
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