Reshape

Project objectives

The amputation of the hand certainly determines a functional deficit but also a distortion of the image that the subject has of his own body. The image of one's body is what tells us that our hand is ours and is a fundamental aspect of self-awareness. The hand prostheses developed up to now aim to be substitutes for the function of the hand, without trying to cure the alteration of the body image from which amputees suffer, which is also the origin of phantom limb pain.

The objective of RESHAPE is to study which characteristics a hand prosthesis must have in order to facilitate its integration into the amputee's body schema (embodiment), the connected brain processes and facilitate embodiment. To date, amputees perceive prostheses as tools rather than an actual limb; RESHAPE will allow you to perceive the prosthesis in the most natural way possible, improving its performance in parallel. This will give amputees no longer the perception of using an instrument but of having their hand back.

RESHAPE represents a paradigm shift in prosthetic development. It will be able to provide innovative guidelines for the production of highly embodable prostheses, to obtain further knowledge on how tools are able to alter body image, to artificially increase embodiment and introduce a new strategy to combat plasticity maladaptive in amputees and improve phantom limb syndrome.

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