Epilepsy patients undergoing surgery provide valuable tactile sensation feedback

The team at the University of Washington’s Center for Neurotechnology is working out how best to engineer stimulation to the brain to restore tactile sensations that allow people to perform useful tasks. To this end, they study how people respond to sensation triggered by electrical stimulation of the brain, with the goal of devising a system that will allow someone who has lost the sense of touch to feel a loved one’s hand again.  Collaborating with neurological surgeons Jeffrey Ojemann and Andrew Ko, they rely on patient volunteers who allow them to carry out research while they are undergoing treatment for epilepsy. Read the full story here.