robotic arm . In the experiment, supplementing vision with artificial tactile perception cut the time spent grasping and transferring objects in half, from a median time of 20.9 to 10.2 seconds. "In a sense, this is what we hoped would happen — but perhaps not to the degree that we observed," said co-senior author Jennifer Collinger, Ph.D., associate professor in the Pitt Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. "Sensory feedback from limbs and hands is hugely important for doing normal things in our daily lives, and when that feedback is lacking, people's performance is impaired." Study participant Nathan Copeland, whose progress was described in the paper, is the first person in the world who was implanted with tiny electrode arrays not just in his brain's