PEOPLE with prosthetic arms could be made to "feel" their fingers, thanks to a novel surgical technique called targeted muscle reinnervation.

Todd Kuiken's team at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago redirected sensory nerves that used to lead to the arm in a 24-year-old patient with a prosthetic arm. They are now connected to the skin of her chest, and if she is touched here she feels sensations in the fingers of her missing hand. To get sensory feedback from the fingers her prosthetic arm needs to be adapted so that it picks up input and transmits it to the portion of the chest that feels like her hand.

Kuiken and his team are working on a prototype that uses a plunger-like mechanism to transfer the sensing of pressure to the chest (The Lancet, vol 369, p 371). They hope to begin testing it in three to six months.