Neurologist Paolo Maria Rossini of Italy developed The RoboCop-style device that was attached to the nervous system of 26-year-old Pierpaolo Petruzziello, who lost most of his arm in a car accident. 

During a one-month experiment, he learned to control the hand with his mind - and said it felt like his lost limb had grown back. The hand obeyed commands from his brain 95 per cent of the time. 

Petruzziello learned to wiggle the robotic fingers independently, clench a fist, grab objects and make other movements. Rossini,  joked: "Some of the other gestures cannot be disclosed because they were quite vulgar." 

The Sun,December 2, 2009

A ROBOTIC Hand Controlled by THOUGHTS Alone has been Successfully Trialled on an Italian Amputee. 

The RoboCop-style device was attached to the nervous system of 26-year-old Pierpaolo Petruzziello, who lost most of his arm in a car accident. 

During a one-month experiment, he learned to control the hand with his mind ? and said it felt like his lost limb had grown back. 

He said: "It's a matter of mind, of concentration. When you think of it as your hand and forearm, it all becomes easier." 

Petruzziello learned to wiggle the robotic fingers independently, clench a fist, grab objects and make other movements. 

Neurologist Paolo Maria Rossini, who led the research in Italy, joked: "Some of the other gestures cannot be disclosed because they were quite vulgar." 

He added: "The approach we followed is natural. The patient didn't have to learn to use muscles that do a different job to move a prosthesis, he just had to concentrate and send to the robotic hand the same messages he used to send to his own hand." 

Though similar experiments have been done before, the scientists who led the ?2million project say this was the first time a patient has been able to make such complex movements in a biomechanics hand using only his mind. 

After Petruzziello recovered from the microsurgery he underwent to implant the electrodes in what remains of his arm, it only took him a few days to master use of the robotic hand. 

By the time the experiment was over, the hand obeyed commands from his brain 95 per cent of the time. 

Petruzziello said the feedback he got from the hand was amazingly accurate. 

He said: "It felt almost the same as a real hand. They stimulated me a lot, even with needles...you can't imagine what they did to me." 

While the LifeHand experiment lasted only a month, this was the longest time electrodes had remained connected to a human nervous system in such an experiment, said Silvestro Micera, one of the engineers on the team. 

The challenge for scientists now will be to create a system that can connect a patient's nervous system and a prosthetic limb for years, not just a month. 

It will take at least two or three years before scientists try to replicate the experiment with a more long-term electronic limb. 

First they need to study if the hair-thin electrodes can be kept in longer. 

Biomedical expert Klaus-Peter Hoffmann said: "Results from the experiment are encouraging, as the electrodes removed from Mr Petruzziello showed no damage and could well stay in longer." 

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