4.8 Article

Ownership of an artificial limb induced by electrical brain stimulation

Publisher

NATL ACAD SCIENCES
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1616305114

Keywords

body perception; electrical brain stimulation; neuroprosthetics; multisensory integration; self

Funding

  1. NIH [NS065186, NS079200]
  2. National Science Foundation (NSF) [EEC-1028725, DGE-1256082, IIS-1514790, 2K12HD001097]
  3. Swedish Research Council
  4. James McDonnell Foundation
  5. Torsten Soderbergs Stiftelse
  6. Riksbanken Jubileumsfond
  7. Promobilia Foundation
  8. Swedish Society for Medical Research
  9. Stockholm Brain Institute
  10. Swedish Society of Medicine
  11. Direct For Computer & Info Scie & Enginr
  12. Div Of Information & Intelligent Systems [1515167] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
  13. Div Of Information & Intelligent Systems
  14. Direct For Computer & Info Scie & Enginr [1514790] Funding Source: National Science Foundation

Ask authors/readers for more resources

Replacing the function of a missing or paralyzed limb with a prosthetic device that acts and feels like one's own limb is a major goal in applied neuroscience. Recent studies in nonhuman primates have shown thatmotor control and sensory feedback can be achieved by connecting sensors in a robotic arm to electrodes implanted in the brain. However, it remains unknown whether electrical brain stimulation can be used to create a sense of ownership of an artificial limb. In this study on two human subjects, we show that ownership of an artificial hand can be induced via the electrical stimulation of the hand section of the somatosensory (SI) cortex in synchrony with touches applied to a rubber hand. Importantly, the illusion was not elicited when the electrical stimulation was delivered asynchronously or to a portion of the SI cortex representing a body part other than the hand, suggesting that multisensory integration according to basic spatial and temporal congruence rules is the underlying mechanism of the illusion. These findings show that the brain is capable of integrating natural visual input and direct cortical-somatosensory stimulation to create the multisensory perception that an artificial limb belongs to one's own body. Thus, they serve as a proof of concept that electrical brain stimulation can be used to bypass the peripheral nervous system to induce multisensory illusions and ownership of artificial body parts, which has important implications for patients who lack peripheral sensory input due to spinal cord or nerve lesions.

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