The subject who underwent to the implantation surgery and participated in the training and testing required by the LifeHand project is Pierpaolo Petruzziello, a 26 years-old Italian-Brazilian male. Approximately two and a half years before the surgery, he had a trans-radial amputation of the left upper limb as a result of the injury sustained in a car accident.

He was selected among individuals who spontaneously contacted the University “Campus Bio-Medico” asking to participate in the project and who satisfied the clinical criteria set forth in the protocol, in other words:

• Amputation at the trans-radial level (between elbow and wrist);
• Unsatisfactory use of other types of prostheses
• Voluntary adherence to the aims of the study, subject to detailed and complete information being provided on potential risks and benefits of the experimentation.

The subject underwent several neuro-psychological tests, including:

• Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS)
• Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale Revised (WAIS-R) 
• Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI-2)

The tests aimed at excluding problems of a cognitive and psychological nature, analyzing the ability to understand complex and structured instructions, and lastly assessing the level of motivation.

The patient was also investigated with electroneurography for the purpose of excluding peripheral neuropathologies that might hinder the effectiveness of implanting the tf-LIFE electrodes.

Diagnostic and clinical tests were conducted on the patient before the electrodes implant to define, on the basis of experiments on animals and other experiences found in literature, the intra and post-operatory experimental protocols and the experimental setup for the intra and post-operatory recordings.

After the implantation surgery, Pierpaolo Petruzziello kept the electrodes in his arm for 24 consecutive days, after which he underwent surgery to remove them.