Fake limbs 'can feel like the real thing'

Amputees can be tricked into 'feeling' lifelike sensations from robotic limbs - through virtual reality. By combining the senses of sight and touch, scientists managed to convince patients a prosthetic hand belonged to their own body. In experiments, the groundbreaking technique worked on two patients who have lost hands. It could revolutionise treatment of maimed members of the Armed Forces and other people who have lost arms or legs. It is estimated up to half of amputees with prosthetics do not actually use them because they do not match up with their own perception of the missing limb. Dr Giulio Rognini and colleagues went beyond the "seeing is believing" idiom based on established research on how the brain identifies what belongs to its own body.