Haptic technology (sense of touch) along with 3D-virtual reality (VR) graphics, creating lifelike training simulations, was used to develop a dental training simulator system (PerioSim). This preliminary study was designed to evaluate whether faculty considered PerioSim realistic and useful for training and evaluating basic procedural skills of students. The haptic device employed was a PHANToM...

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Improving the functionality of prosthetic hands with noninvasive techniques is still a challenge. Surface electromyography (sEMG) currently gives limited control capabilities; however, the application of machine learning to the analysis of sEMG signals is promising and has recently been applied in practice, but many questions still remain. In this study, we recorded the sEMG activity of the for...

Nearly all amputees continue to feel their missing limb as if it still existed, and many experience chronic phantom limb pain (PLP). What is the origin of these sensations? There is currently a broad consensus among investigators that PLP is a top-down phenomenon, triggered by loss of sensory input and caused by maladaptive cortical plasticity. We tested the alternative hypothesis that PLP is p...

1. Abstract The aim of the research is to develop a new therapy for the relief of phantom limb pain (PLP) using a virtual reality environment. PLP is pain which is felt in a limb which is missing through amputation. The therapy will be derived from an existing therapy which uses a system of mirrors to mirror an existing limb in such a way that it appears that the amputated limb is still there. ...

This paper reviews reports of phantom limb sensations which resemble somatosensory events experienced in the limb before amputation. It also presents descriptions of this phenomenon in 68 amputees who took part in a series of clinical studies. These somatosensory memories are predominantly replicas of distressing pre-amputation lesions and pains which were experienced at or near the time of amp...

AIM To study long-term outcome of unilateral above-knee amputation. OBJECTIVE Long-term clinical symptoms and functional status of above-knee amputees are not well documented. The purpose of this study was to document the long-term outcome of war related above-knee amputations. CONTEXT The study consisted of a comprehensive assessment and examination and review of history and wartime medica...

This paper reviews the current literature on "empathy for pain", the ability to understand pain observed in another person, in the context of a newly documented form of pain empathy "synaesthesia for pain". In synaesthesia for pain a person not only empathises with another's pain but experiences the observed or imagined pain as if it was their own. Neural mechanisms potentially involved in syna...

This clinical note describes an unusual phenomenon of referred sensation reported in a sample of 98 chronic pain patients during electrical stimulation. Thirty-nine percent reported a variety of sensations referred to different parts of the body. Of these, 74% reported the sensations referred to the painful region. Among the sensations were paresthesias, pain, temperature changes, and pressure ...

Our IMSC team has used haptics to allow museum visitors to explore three-dimensional works of art by “touching” them, something that is not possible in ordinary museums due to prevailing “hands-off” policies [1, 2]. Haptics involves the modality of touch--the sensation of shape and texture an observer feels when exploring a virtual object, such as a three-dimensional model of a piece of pottery...