Handy Third Thumb. Health Check - BBC, July 2022 Claudia Hammond is at the Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition and speaks to Professor Tamar Makin and designer Dani Clode to find out whether a Third Thumb might be handy.

Tamar Makin on brain plasticity. UCL Brain Stories, November 2021 In this podcast, Tamar discusses her research on brain plasticity, artificial limbs, and the potential for human augmentation.

Is it possible to enhance and rewire the adult brain? The Guardian Science Weekly Podcast, March 2018
In this podcast, Tamar discusses the possibilities for enhancing brain plasticity in the later stages of life.

Talks & Videos

Bionic 3rd Thumb: The future of human augmentation | Hard reset, Freethink (January, 2023) The Freethink team flies to the UK to learn more about designer Dani Clode and the Third Thumb. Together, they discuss perspectives in human body augmentation.

Could you get used to a Third thumb?, The Royal Society, (July, 2022) Professor Makin and designer Dani Clode discuss brain adaptation to profound changes to our body when having to learn to control and collaborate with a brand new body part, such as the Third Thumb.

ELSC Seminar Series: Prof. Tamar Makin, ELSC, (November, 2021) Professor Makin discusses neurocognitive considerations for the future of human augmentation and prosthetics.

Dani Clode and Tamar Makin: A perspective on motor augmentation from neuroscience and design, ICRA, (July, 2021) Presentation by Dani Clode and Tamar Makin (University College London, UK) at the Workshop on Integrating Multidisciplinary Approaches to Advance Physical Human-Robot Interaction at ICRA 2021.

Phantom Pain, BBC News, (Feb 2019)

Brain’s 'hand area' used by other body parts in people born with one hand, UCL (April, 2017)
In this clip Tamar describes the findings of our Current Biology paper.

Blogs & Feature Articles

An Extra Robotic Thumb Quickly Changes How The Brain Represents And Uses Its Biological Hand, Forbes, July 2021 Prof Gabriel Silva reports our recent Science Robotics paper about neural changes driven by using The Third Thumb

New Theory of Phantom Pain Could Mean End for Illusory Treatments, Technology Networks, Feb 2020 Ruairi J Mackenzie reports from a recent talk from Tamar on new theories on phantom limb pain and how they inform clinical approaches 

How the brain remembers amputated limbs – and continues to control them, The Conversation, Feb 2019

From robotic companions to third thumbs, machines can change the human brain, Robohub, Jan 2019

Solving phantom limb pain – science is getting closer, The Conversation, Jan 2019

News

Human Augmentation with Robotic Parts is At Hand, The Guardian, March 2023
An overview of the Third Thumb project and possible implications for the future.

In a digital era, we’ll all be prosthetic fingers and thumbs, The Times, March 2023
An overview of the Third Thumb project and possible implications for the future.

Humans could soon be wearing tentacles, thumbs and wings, The Telegraph, March 2023
An overview of the Third Thumb project and possible implications for the future.

To the Brain, a Tool Is Just a Tool, Not a Hand Extension, Scientific American, May 2021 This article discusses the implications of our findings on the future of prosthetic design.

What Painting With Your Feet Does to Your Brain, New York Times, Sept 2019
Our new findings about toe maps in foot artists discussed on the New York Times

Prosthetic limbs represented like hands in brain, myScience, March 2018
This article discusses some of our recent research on how amputees represent their artificial prosthetic limbs in their brains.

Our findings being ‘hyped’ by the Independent…
‘Mind-blowing’ discovery could revolutionise our understanding of how brain works, Independent, Apr 2017
Honestly, we wished they stuck with the press release