Humans could evolve into cyborgs with bionic tweezer-like tools for hands, new study suggests

The next step in human evolution could see us further integrate technology with flesh and bones.

But it may surprise some that the technology may not emulate human characteristics like today’s prosthetics, according to a new study.

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Neuroscientists have found that people actually feel more connected to “tweezer-like” bionic tools than to grafts that resemble human hands.

Using virtual reality (VR), researchers tested whether humans could feel as if the clamp were part of their own body.

Participants were able to successfully incorporate a “bionic tool” and a prosthetic hand to equal degrees.

However, people were faster and more accurate when completing tasks virtually with their gripper hands than when using a human hand.

“For our biology to merge perfectly with the tools, we need to feel that the tools are part of our body,” said Ottavia Maddaluno, a neuroscientist at Sapienza University of Rome and first author of the study.

“Our findings demonstrate that humans can experience a grafted tool as an integral part of their own body.”

The study was conducted in partnership with the Santa Lucia IRCCS Foundation with fellow neuroscientist Viviana Betti.

The duo believes that participants identified more with the pincer hands due to their simplicity.

Having just two tips, rather than five fingers, can make tasks easier for the brain to compute.

“In terms of the pinching task, pinchers are functionally similar to a human hand, but simpler, and simple is also computationally better for the brain,” Maddaluno added.

A sense of the “uncanny valley” — the mysterious sensation that a human-like robotic object evokes — may also have hurt the chances of the human-like hand, the researchers noted.

The next step is to study whether these bionic tools could be incorporated into patients who have lost limbs.

Ottavia Maddaluno, neuroscientist at Sapienza University of Rome

“The next step is to study whether these bionic tools could be incorporated into patients who have lost limbs,” explained Maddaluno.

“We also want to investigate the plastic changes that this type of bionic tool can induce in the brains of healthy participants and amputees.”

Putting tweezers to the test

The tasks started out simple, involving popping bubbles of a specific color.

As the difficulties increased, participants were asked to identify which fingers – or tips – were being stimulated by small vibrations applied by the researchers while they were distracted by the flickering light.

“This is an index of how much of a mismatch there is in your brain between what you feel and what you see,” Maddaluno explained.

“But this mismatch could only happen if your brain thinks that what you see is part of your own body.

“If I don’t feel like the bionic tool I’m seeing through virtual reality is part of my own body, the visual stimulus shouldn’t cause any interference.”