New research on artificial robot fingers has produced surprising results-in just a few days, people using their thumbs can naturally manipulate it to perform complex tasks, such as building a tower from wooden blocks, or holding it while holding it. While stirring the coffee.

Not only that, the neural scan showed that the presence of the "third thumb" actually changed what happened in the brain, even if the extra appendages were removed: connecting a robotic thumb for a few days would change the brain's flesh and blood finger representation.

Understanding what's happening here is essential to improve the relationship between our bodies and tools, robotic equipment and prostheses. Although these enhancement methods are very useful, we need to understand their impact on our brains.

Dani Clode uses a mechanical thumb. (University College London)

"Our research shows that people can quickly learn to control augmented devices and use them for their own benefit without over-thinking," said Dani Clode, a designer and research technician from University College London (UCL) in the United Kingdom, who made The third thumb.

"We saw that when using the third thumb, people changed their natural hand movements, and they also reported that the robot thumb felt like a part of their own body."

The 3D printed thumb provides two degrees of movement and is controlled wirelessly by pressure from the big toe. The study convened 20 people who were willing to add an extra thumb and asked them to wear it for 6 hours a day for 5 days—whether in a preset training task or in daily life.

These routines focus on motor control, coordination, and dexterity, and are designed to teach them how to use the third thumb intuitively.

Volunteers managed to use their thumbs even when they were distracted or blindfolded and reported a strong sense of manifestation.

Some participants also performed fMRI scans before and after the third thumb experiment, moving their fingers sequentially while analyzing their brains-although for safety reasons, no extra thumbs were used in the scanner. The hand without the third thumb was used as a control for comparison.

Scans showed that the brain’s representation of a single finger on the hand with more thumbs became less obvious-the sensory motor cortex (where sensory and motor information is processed) began to blur each other's neural activity areas.

"Evolution has not prepared us to use additional body parts. We have found that in order to expand our capabilities in new and unexpected ways, the brain needs to adapt to the representation of the organism," says neuroscientist Tamar Makin from University College London . .

Although after a while you may feel that a tennis racket or a screwdriver becomes a part of your body, so far, brain scan studies have not fully supported this-as far as the brain is concerned, these additional appendages are considered independent Yes, it can tell the difference between hands and tools.

However, it is different to physically connect something to your body and work with it. The results obtained by the researchers here are closer to the results we see in professional piano players-long-term training will cause changes in the brain's representation of the fingers, and the differences between the fingers are smaller.

As we develop more advanced robots and prostheses to enhance the capabilities of our natural body, this relationship needs further research-there is a lot of potential here, but more research is needed on the kind of transformation it can cause to our brains.

"Body enhancement may one day be valuable to society in many ways, such as allowing surgeons to work without assistants, or allowing factory workers to work more efficiently," said Paulina Kiliba, a neuroscientist also from University College London. Say.

"This work can completely change the concept of prosthetics. It can help people who can only use one hand forever or temporarily do anything with that hand. But to achieve this goal, we need to continue to study the complex and span of prostheses. Subject matter. How do these devices interact with our brains."

The research has been published in "Science Robot".