ArticleNature communications2019
Augmented manipulation ability in humans with six-fingered hands.
Article in Nature communications, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 23 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
23 citing papers in PubMed.
- A multi-paradigm and longitudinal EEG dataset including the "sixth-finger" and "affected-hand" motor imagery of stroke patients.Scientific data · 2026Article
- Structured modulations in high-density EMG patterns from a single muscle enable simultaneous control of natural and extra degrees of freedom.Journal of neuroengineering and rehabilitation · 2026Article
- Early Motor Development and Rehabilitation Outcomes in Apert Syndrome: Gross Motor Function Measures-Case Report.Pathophysiology : the official journal of the International Society for Pathophysiology · 2026Article
- A detachable crawling robotic hand.Nature communications · 2026Article
- The sixth finger illusion induced by palm outside stroking shows stable ownership and independence.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- The Multiscale Wisdom of the Body: Collective Intelligence as a Tractable Interface for Next-Generation Biomedicine.BioEssays : news and reviews in molecular, cellular and developmental biology · 2025Review
- BandFocusNet: A Lightweight Model for Motor Imagery Classification of a Supernumerary Thumb in Virtual Reality.IEEE open journal of engineering in medicine and biology · 2025Article
- An fMRI study on the generalization of motor learning after brain actuated supernumerary robot training.NPJ science of learning · 2024Article
- Neural signatures of motor imagery for a supernumerary thumb in VR: an EEG analysis.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Morphology, Connectivity, and Encoding Features of Tactile and Motor Representations of the Fingers in the Human Precentral and Postcentral Gyrus.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2023Article
- Distinct patterning responses of wing and leg neuromuscular systems to different preaxial polydactylies.Frontiers in cell and developmental biology · 2023Article
- Gattaca as a lens on contemporary genetics: marking 25 years into the film's "not-too-distant" future.Genetics · 2022Article
- The Ethics of Supernumerary Robotic Limbs. An Enactivist Approach.Science and engineering ethics · 2022Article
- Malleability of the cortical hand map following a finger nerve block.Science advances · 2022Article
- Principles of human movement augmentation and the challenges in making it a reality.Nature communications · 2022Review
- Playing the piano with a robotic third thumb: assessing constraints of human augmentation.Scientific reports · 2021Article
- Emerging of new bioartificial corticospinal motor synergies using a robotic additional thumb.Scientific reports · 2021Article
- Robotic hand augmentation drives changes in neural body representation.Science robotics · 2021Article
- Relation between palm and finger cortical representations in primary somatosensory cortex: A 7T fMRI study.Human brain mapping · 2021Article
- Functional Reorganization After Four-Week Brain-Computer Interface-Controlled Supernumerary Robotic Finger Training: A Pilot Study of Longitudinal Resting-State fMRI.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
13 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Neurotechnology attempts to develop supernumerary limbs, but can the human brain deal with the complexity to control an extra limb and yield advantages from it? Here, we analyzed the neuromechanics and manipulation abilities of two polydactyly subjects who each possess six fingers on their hands. Anatomical MRI of the supernumerary finger (SF) revealed that it is actuated by extra muscles and nerves, and fMRI identified a distinct cortical representation of the SF. In both subjects, the SF was able to move independently from the other fingers. Polydactyly subjects were able to coordinate the SF with their other fingers for more complex movements than five fingered subjects, and so carry out with only one hand tasks normally requiring two hands. These results demonstrate that a body with significantly more degrees-of-freedom can be controlled by the human nervous system without causing motor deficits or impairments and can instead provide superior manipulation abilities.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.