Similar trial-by-trial adaptation behavior across transhumeral amputees and able-bodied subjects

EMG control of powered upper limb prostheses is difficult and imprecise. One approach for improving control is to help amputees develop more accurate internal models of their prosthetic device. This may be facilitated by an intuitive mapping of neural signals to device movement, a way of providing sensory feedback, or training methods. A first step, arguably, is to understand how an amputation affects adaptation. Here we studied trial-by-trial adaptation in a simple target-directed task with transhumeral amputees and healthy controls. We found that adaptation behavior was indistinguishable between amputees using the residual limb, amputees using the intact limb, and able-bodied subjects. Transhumeral amputees completed the task with larger errors than able-bodied subjects, but there was, perhaps surprisingly, no difference between the residual and intact limb.